Desperate Measures
by SecretlyADemon
Summary: She'd known the true meaning of Hell all her life. She never thought it could be worsened by one person arriving in the paradise she worked so hard to obtain. Will his arrival open her eyes to a different, better paradise she'd long condemmed herself from, or will he only serve to bring back all the demons she'd be struggling to keep at bay? LavixOC FamilyAllenxOC
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, and thank you for giving this story a chance :) Feel free to enjoy and leave a review. Constructive criticism is encouraged. No Flames unless you want an angry me coming after you in retaliation. **

**I do have a majority of this story already written, so I'll probably update weekly/bi-weekly depending on my schedule and how log it takes me to edit my chapters. As I am doing all the editing, all mistakes are mine, feel free to point them out so I can fix them.**

**I also do not own -Man (really, why can't it let me write out the full name? *sigh*), I only own Katsu, my OC. If I did own, I would most likely be one of the happiest people on Earth ;)**

**Without further ado...enjoy.**

Katsu stormed through the halls of the Black Order, seething as a storm raged over her head daring any scientist or Finder she passed to approach her. She was in no mood to converse with anyone. What she really wanted to do, was hit something. _Hard. _And if she understood correctly, Kanda should have gotten back from his mission a few days ago. He would be more than willing to spar with her.

She easily found him in the training hall, practicing blindfolded on the dummies with Mugen. Other than Kanda, who was twirling gracefully around the practice dummies, the hall was clear. Katsu's lip twitched. She had to give it to the Scientists and Finders, they did learn quickly on who to avoid and when to avoid them.

"Oi, Kanda!"

Kanda spun in her direction, Mugen pointed directly at her. "What do you want?" Kanda demanded.

"To hit something. You in?"

There was a pause before the dark haired Exorcist lowered his katana and removed his blindfold. "Che, fine. This dummies were getting boring anyway."

Katsu smirked. "No Innocence." She looked down pointedly at the blade that was still in Kanda's tight grip.

Without a word, he stepped out of the ring of practice dummies to rest the katana against the closest wall. He then walked to the center of the room. Katsu followed suit, setting herself in an offensive stance in the middle of the room.

Kanda fell into his own stance. A moment of stillness followed before the two jumped at each other with a flurry of attacks.

This is what Katsu loved about Kanda. He didn't ask unnecessary questions, and didn't try to cheer her up. Plus he was the only person who provided a decent challenge at hand to hand combat. The others were too dependent on their Innocence.

Katsu snapped her fist aiming for his face. When it was blocked, she immediately shot her foot out. It connect to his stomach with a quiet 'oof'. The attack didn't deter Kanda, however. He was quick to retaliate. His attacks were quick and sharp, causing sweat to break out on Katsu's brow. Kanda was just about to land a hit on Katsu when an alarm screamed through the Order.

"Akuma! An ally of the Earl is trying to get in!"

Both fighting Exorcists recognized the voice of the Gatekeeper and tensed. Kanda's arm froze mid-air as they stared up at the speaker in shock. There was an Akuma attacking? Correction, there was an Akuma stupid enough to attack their headquarters alone?

Blue eyes met silver, determination flashing between the two globes.

They detangled themselves from their fighting stances. Kanda grabbed Mugen and the two of them rushed to reach the front of the Order. Simultaneously, the two of the paused on top of the balcony overlooking the gate to the Order.

Katsu looked down, searching for the target. What she saw made her eyes widen. Her gaze flickered over to Kanda, looking for his reaction, only to see his eyes narrowed staring down at the offending boy.

"You have a lot of guts to come here alone," Kanda called down to the boy.

The boy looked up towards them, seeing Kanda standing proudly, as Katsu crouched low, inspecting the boy closely as she caught sight of his face.

Katsu gasped. She could hardly believe her eyes. It wasn't because the boy had a nasty scar running down the left side of his face, nor was it because his left arm was a mutilated red. No, it was the stark silver hair and silver eyes that was looking up at them. The same as hers. Hell, with how she looked now, she could almost pass for an identical copy of him. It was such an impossible notion, that it left Katsu crouching on top of the gate, unable to move to attack the intruder.

Kanda had no problem attacking the boy. He jumped down, activating Mugen as he did so. He landed before the boy, lashing out his katana. In a flash of white light, the boy stood before Kanda, left arm poised in front of him defensively. No longer was it a deep red. In less than a second it had transformed into a large silver claw.

Katsu cried out in pain and disbelief, eyes never leaving that boy. Clutching her left arm to her chest she couldn't help but stare at him in an angry wonderment. She had felt the familiar warmth of Innocence flow through her arm, simultaneously with the change in the silver boy's arm. She also felt the-sadly-familiar pain of Kanda's Mugen slicing through flesh. The flicker of fear flickered within her chest. The ticklish feeling she recognized instantly, and squashed with annoyance. Why was it these feelings returned, all with the appearance of this boy? She had just gotten them under control!

Katsu stood, watching the boy desperately avoid the flurry that was Kanda's attacks with mild annoyance. It wasn't like her day had been bad enough when she lost the Innocence on her last mission, but now this boy brought back almost everything she hated about her life. As much as she would prefer watching, she couldn't let Kanda kill him...yet. She needed her answers first.

Activating her own Innocence, Katsu jumped into the fight. The second her feet touched the ground, her eyes met the boys briefly before spinning around and blocking Kanda's attack her bandaged arm. She watched, eye twitching as her bandage was cut away, revealing her blackened skin. "You owe me a new bandage."

Kanda scoffed. "Get your own. They would be fine if you hadn't gotten in the way."

"You can't kill him. He's obviously an Exorcist. Did you take the millisecond needed to look at his arm? That's Innocence embedded in his hand."

"It's true, my Master even sent a letter addressed to Komui," the boy piped up, hands up in the air, after having transformed his arm back to normal.

Katsu sweat dropped as Kanda turned around to yell at the golem that had been keeping a close eye on the fight. "Komui!"

"This might take a while," Katsu muttered, keeping her arm raised. Using her raised arm, she twisted her body under Kanda's arm, pulling into a hold that forced his arm to release the sword. She bent down and picked up the blade in the same swift movement.

Kanda turned on her glaring.

Katsu raised her hand, shaking her finger at him. "I can't give you the chance of killing him."

"I wasn't the one who returned in a murderous mood."

Katsu huffed, "I have self-control."

Kanda's brow twitched. "So do I."

She raised her eyebrow at him. "I do recall you threatening multiple people with Mugen on a daily basis. Especially Lavi."

"The Baka Usagi deserves it."

Katsu's head tilted in thought, "That may be true. He can get rather annoying." At the sound of shuffling, Katsu's attention was once again brought back to her silver haired look-a-like. He was staring at the two of them awkwardly, looking like he was wanting to say something, but unsure what to say. With the way that his eyes kept reverting back to her, Katsu assumed he was just as curious about her as she was of him. That or he was freaked out by her appearance.

Katsu wouldn't blame him. She knew she looked daunting. Hell, she practically blended in with the darkness around them, aside from her silver eyes and hair. The joys of her Innocence, making her look like the ninja she was in everything but name.

Realizing that the conversation in front of him had stopped, the boy walked up to them, smiling nervously. "Hi, I'm Allen Walker." He stuck out right hand for a hand shake.

Katsu stared down at it expressionlessly, as she replied more out of manners than actual interest. "Katsu."

With a small frown, Allen retracted his hand, lifting it to rub the back of his head nervously.

When his hand was out of her sight, Katsu's eyes rose back to look in Allen's. Silver met silver in a silent show down. Allen's gaze remained innocent, curious while Katsu's was accusing, and scornful.

There was a crackle from the golem behind her. Katsu quickly recognized Reever's voice. "We've got the letter; let him in."

The gate rumbled as they opened, but they didn't silence the voice that was still audible through the golem. "It's a good thing Katsu stopped Kanda from killing our newest recruit."

Katsu's eye twitched. Komui was going to be one of the people that drove her up the wall. "Maybe if we had a _supervisor_ that was organized and didn't have an office that looked like it housed a horde of Akuma, mistakes like this wouldn't happen."

The faint, "I'm going to get more coffee," was heard from Komui in response.

"Guys, get in here before I decide to close the doors." Three heads to look at Lenalee as she pointed inside the door.

Wordlessly, Katsu handed Mugen back to Kanda before making her way through the door, deactivating her Innocence. Footsteps shadowed hers, indicating Kanda and Allen were following close behind. Once the four of them were safely in the door, it closed with a slow rumble.

The moment of silence that followed was soon broken by Allen who extended his hand to Kanda. "Kanda, that's your name right? Nice to meet you."

Kanda gave Allen's hand a look similar to the one he received from Katsu before turning away from the boy. "Che, who the hell would want to shake hands with a cursed person?" He quickly walked off.

Katsu's hand unconsciously gripped at her chest as she felt the tickle of emotion again. Offense and hurt managed to make their presence known. Eyes narrowing, she glanced over at Allen again. Those two emotions clear as day on his face as he watched Kanda stalk off. Was he doing that willingly? Was he forcibly pushing his emotions to her? Katsu shook her head. That was illogical. The boy had no reason to force such feelings on a person he didn't know. For some reason, this annoyed Katsu further.

Lenalee walked up beside him, offering a reassuring smile. "Don't mind him, he's probably still cranky over his last mission."

Katsu snorted. "He doesn't have a reason to be cranky. There was no Innocence in that town."

Lenalee looked over to Katsu sympathetically. "It's not your fault, Katsu."

Katsu glared, crossing her arms. "Yes it was. There was Innocence present and I let the Akuma run off with it. It was most definitely my fault."

Lenalee silently sighed. "Do you want to go train or get a meal to take your mind off it? I'm sure I can show Allen around on my own."

Katsu stubbornly shook her head. "No. I have something I need to ask your brother about anyway. The sooner I can get this off my chest the better." Her eyes flickered to Allen again, her right hand clenching around the jacket covering her chest, and her left twitched painfully.

Lenalee noticed. Her eyes locked onto Katsu's twitching limb, then to the one she had seen Allen got injured on the monitor. Her eyes widened a fraction as she nodded. "Perhaps we should go straight to Komui before the grand tour."

Allen looked quizzically between the two female Exorcists as they led him through the halls of the Black Order.

Komui was there to greet them at the entrance to the science wing. With a large smile and open arms, he greeted Allen. "Hello, Allen Walker! I am Komui Lee, the Scientific Group Supervisor." He motioned for the trio to follow him as he started through the science division, sipping at his coffee. "I apologize for the little misunderstanding earlier. We are in the process of reorganizing and updating our security systems."

Katsu snorted, rolling her eyes as she kept a few steps behind them. Her confident walk faltered however, when they reached one of Komui's small labs. A shiver passed through her, as unwanted memories of when she got her Innocence repaired flashed through her mind. Allen noticed, looking at her from the corner of his eye, his head tilting to the side as he watched her.

Her jaw set, and she stepped into the room with a forced air of confidence, taking Allen's glance as a challenge she was not willing to back down from. Both of their attentions was focused back on Komui when he spoke again.

"You may have a seat, Allen. You too Katsu." With a nod, Katsu reluctantly took her place in the second chair. Komui stood on the other side of the table. "Can you both put your left arms on the table please?"

Allen complied quickly, with Katsu a few seconds behind. She glared down at her hand, as it shook while resting against the table. She clenched her fist in an attempt to stop the quivering. All that managed to accomplish was the hint of pain to shoot up her arm. Katsu's lip curled.

Komui watched Katsu struggled with a gleam in his eye that was common in that of a interested scientist. His eyes flashed between the two deformed arms on the table before him. While Katsu's resembled that of a work of art, with the Innocence wrapping around her forearm and hand in black swirls, Allen's was an unevenly textured, a deep blood red. It was fascinating to Komui, to see the similarities and the differences between the two Innocence, much like their accommodators.

Komui moved over to Allen's arm, lifting it slightly so he could get a better view. He inspected the wounds, recognizing the work of Kanda's swordsman ship, even if he hadn't seen it in action. "It seems that your nerve cords are damaged. I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to be effecting your arm." Komui's eyes flickered over to Katsu twitching limb before focusing on Allen's arm again. He prodded against the wound, "Does this hurt?"

Allen shook his head, the same time Katsu grunted. Her arm slammed against the table at the force of the twitch. "_Yes_," she hissed.

Komui gently place Allen's arm against the table again as he turned to Katsu. Their eyes met and Katsu nodded, jaw clenched as she answered the silent question that passed between them.

"Lenalee, get me some needles. I think I'm going to need to take some blood." Komui said, looking up towards his sister.

Allen paled and Katsu tensed.

"Why the hell are you going to do that? That has nothing to do with Allen's injury." Katsu demanded. She really didn't want to deal with needles unnecessarily.

"It will answer the question we have all been wondering. I have my theories of course, but I'd much prefer having the proof before my eyes. While I wait for the results, I will fix Allen's anti-akuma weapon, then we can take him to visit Hevlaska." Komui took the needles Lenalee handed over to him.

Katsu had the urge to activate her Innocence, that way the needle would never pierce her skin. But she knew how stubborn Komui could get. He'd most likely find a way to put her in a state of tranquillity, forcing her to deactivate. That would only make the process more painful. She settled with turning her head the other way, refusing to see the point pick her skin. She was glad she couldn't even feel it over the slight pain the uncontrollable twitching in her left hand caused.

This left her staring at Allen. She didn't say anything as their eyes met, a frown pulling at the corner of her mouth. Despite the unexplainable anger that coursed through her, she kept getting caught by the innocent look in his eyes. Katsu couldn't stand it. It reminded her of when she was younger, after she had experienced great tragedy, yet still a naïve child. It was sad really.

Komui soon pulled the needle from her arm, placing a cap over the tip. He picked up the second needle and made his way over to Allen. Their gaze broke and Katsu focused on Lenalee who was standing to her left at the other side of the table. She handed Katsu another roll of bandages to cover her arms. Katsu smiled gratefully at Lenalee as she took them, expertly wrapping them around her arm, hand and fingers.

By the time she was done, Komui had finished with his samples and was preparing his gear to fix Allen's anti-akuma weapon.

"Use a lot of anesthesia, would you?" Katsu asked, standing up. She went through that pain once and she was unwilling to go through with it again.

Komui looked up from his work long enough to nod at Katsu.

Satisfied, Katsu left the room with Lenalee. It was best not to be present for the procedure that was the fixing of a parasite anti-akuma weapon.

A while later, Allen stumbled out of the room, his arm in a sling. He leaned heavily against the wall as he tried to center himself.

Lenalee raised her eyebrow at her brother who was making his own way out of the lab. "I thought you were going to try your best to not traumatize the new recruits."

"I warned him not to look." Komui stated, as if that was all the justification he needed.

Katsu snorted, crossing her arms. "You probably only gave him a five second warning before beginning too, didn't you?" Komui opened his mouth to defend himself, but Katsu cut him off. "Don't bother. Let's just get this over with so I can get some rest."

"I told you, you didn't have to come," Lenalee said.

Komui shook his head, "I think it would be best for Katsu to visit Hevlaska with Allen. I'd like her opinion on this situation."

Katsu motioned for Komui to lead the way.

Allen was still unsteady on his feet by the time the quartet was on the elevator down to Hevlaska. He had opted to sitting on the floor to gain his bearings, opposed to standing.

Katsu watched him with contempt. Every time her eyes caught sight of _her_ hair-hell it was even the same length-and _her_ eyes, she couldn't help the anger that would flush through her. She couldn't place it, nor did she understand it, but with everything that just so happened to relate back to Allen, Katsu found that it was easy to blame him. Katsu liked easy. It was hard to find something in her life that was easy.

Allen groaned from his spot on the ground. Lenalee crouched down, attempting to sooth the poor boy.

"You should be proud," Komui consoled. "You have one of the rarest types of Innocence, yet the strongest in activating."

Allen looked up, one eye brow raised. "Innocence? You keep using that word, but I don't understand it."

"It's what all our anti-akuma weapons are made of. The only substance that can kill Akuma," Katsu stated sharply, as if the answer was obvious.

Allen blinked at her, refusing get worked up over another display of coldness, while Lenalee glared.

"Why don't you show us your power?" Komui suggested, sensing the tension rising between the two look-a-likes.

Once again Allen blinked silently, irritation towards Katsu flickering beneath the surface. While staring at Komui, multiple tentacle like hands swerved up from behind him, grasping him gently. They tugged him backwards and upwards into the air. Immediately Allen struggled, the customary response to being picked up without warning by Hevlaska. Her arms cocooned Allen's left arm, pulling it gently from the sling it had hung in.

The tendons in Allen's neck strained as he struggled against Hevlaska's hold.

Katsu, feeling the strain within her own left arm, spoke to Allen, picking at her nails while she was at it. "It's pointless to fight. She isn't trying to harm you."

Lenalee glanced at Katsu, disbelieving. "You reacted much harsher than Allen. Even when we reassured you with those same words."

Katsu's brow twitched, as a shadow fell over her features. She looked away with her mouth firmly shut. Instead she focused back on the struggling Allen, with a slight glare. The pain in her arm was making itself instantly known through the anesthesia. Even as Komui reminded Allen that the anesthesia wasn't going to let him activate, the determination was clear as day in his eyes. Perhaps it had something to do with the detached nervousness she felt. The emotion distant and muted compared to the others, tickling at her chest.

None of that mattered, however when the shocking pain jolted through her arm. Katsu gasped, the muscles tensing in protest, cutting off any other possible movement. Her eyes were not focused on her own arm, despite the pain. She was much more interested in the disfigured look of Allen's and the complete lack of pain in his face. How was it fair that he felt _none_ of the pain?

Even still, Hevlaska calmed him, causing Allen's body to go limp in her arms. "Do not move your arm. You're nerves are paralyzed. It is dangerous when you are not a hundred percent healed." She bent her head down to Allen's forehead to measure his synchronization rate. "Eighty-three percent," she declared after a moment.

Allen slowly came to, with the sluggish question, "What's eighty-three percent?"

"It is your synchronization rate. The lower the percentage, the more dangerous it is for an Exorcist to activate their Innocence." Hevlaska placed Allen back onto the elevator before turning to Katsu. "I apologize for any discomfort you many have felt during the test."

Katsu shook her head, looking away from Hevlaska. "It's nothing abnormal." Even if she hated it with all her heart.

Despite focusing her attention elsewhere, Katsu could still feel Hevlaska's thoughtful stare on her back.

"May I have another look at your Innocence?"

The question caused Katsu to look up at Hevlaska in shock. "Why would you need another look? Nothing has changed, as far as I'm aware."

One of Hevlaska's hands reached towards her mouth, as if she were in deep thought. "I can feel a difference," she whispered. "It was static before, sometimes strong, sometimes weak. Now, it's flowing in one strong wave."

Katsu couldn't make her mouth work through her confusion. She simply managed a small nod. If Hevlaska having another look at her Innocence would help her clarify what she just told Katsu, Katsu was more than willing to let her.

When Hevlaska's arms reached out and grabbed her, Katsu fought against her body's instinct to fight her off. Instead, she tried to remain calm. Experience told her the process went quicker with less unpleasantness if she cooperated.

Hevlaska's forehead touched hers, and Katsu closed her eyes as she felt the calming presence of Hevlaska's mind reaching into her own. After a moment, Hevlaska spoke. "Your synchronization rate is steadily increasing."

"What are you saying, Hevlaska?" Komui asked, his own brain scrambling to connect the dots.

"Each Innocence has its own wave length; a code you could call it. Katsu's Innocence's code resembles Allen's greatly. It is as if they are connected and sharing power and this connection is causing Katsu's synchronization rate to slowly increase," Hevlaska explained.

"Shouldn't Allen's synchronization rate be increasing steadily too?"

"I do not know the answer to that. What I do know is that Allen will be the Destroyer of Time and Katsu the Savior."

There was a moment of utter silence before the words managed to sink themselves into Katsu's brain, striking a cord. "What the hell are you talking about? Why didn't you tell us this earlier?"

"I apologize, I appear to have angered you." Hevlaska gently put Katsu back on the elevator. "I could not have predicted this sooner, because the two destinies are intertwined. One cannot happen without the other."

Katsu huffed, wanting to argue further but Komui cut her off. "Thank you, for this information."

Hevlaska nodded, "Until next time."

With those parting words, the elevator began its ascent. "Isn't that wonderful? Hevlaska's fortune telling is correct most of the time."

The swelling anger within Katsu was the only available warning before Allen spun towards Komui, fist raised, aiming to make contact. Thankfully to years of avoiding Kanda's and Katsu's attacks, Komui managed to throw his clipboard in front of his face for protection. Katsu snorted at his lack of skill when Allen's fist hit the clipboard. If she had been desperate enough to hit Komui, she would have thrown her other arm lower, to catch him in the gut. Allen however obviously didn't think of this through his anger.

"Let me hit you please," Allen ground out through clenched teeth.

"Don't be so polite about it, just hit him." Katsu instructed. Who the hell asks someone to let them hit them?

Allen didn't follow her advice, allowing Komui the time to talk.

"I know that must have been a little bit scary, but it is protocol. Every new Exorcist has to be inspected by Hevlaska." Komui hesitantly lowered his clipboard when he felt confident Allen was about to swing another one.

"It would have been nice to have a little bit of forewarning." A tick mark was clearly making itself known on Allen's forehead. "Besides, what is with this whole Innocence thing? I understand it's what makes our anti-akuma weapons, but obviously there appears to be more to it than that."

Komui then took the rest of the elevator ride to explain to Allen the history of the Black Order and Innocence. By the time they reached the desired floor, Katsu was ready to run off to her room, fall asleep and forget that this whole day even happened. Forget that Allen Walker even became a part of her life. That couldn't happen just yet though. She still needed-wanted-to find out the reason behind her and Allen's similarities. Hopefully knowing that information would be one thing out of her mind.

So when Komui made no move to lead them back to the Science Division, Katsu decided to kindly remind him. "Your experiment should be ready now, right? I need to get to sleep."

The light bulb went off in Komui's head. "Ah, yes of course! How could I forget? Right this way." The four of them quickly made their way back to the small lab room. Once inside, Komui scurried ahead to the counter, looking through the information.

With a nervous smile stretching over his lips, his eyes glancing between Allen and Katsu warily, he announced, "You're twins."

Any hope Katsu had of being able to forget about some things if she knew the reason she and Allen looked similar quickly became nothing more than a dream. In seconds, the silver haired boy went from being a complete stranger to family. Biological family.

"What?" Katsu hissed. Perhaps she heard him wrong. There was no way that Allen was her twin _brother._ She couldn't have a sibling. She had been told she had been found on the streets. …Maybe it was because their parents didn't want her. How could she blame them? It must have been disgusting to have a child with a woven black cross on her cheek and black swirls on her arms. Did they find that more repulsive than Allen's arm then?

Komui's eyes were soft, as if he didn't want to startle a wild animal. "You are twins."

Katsu's eyes hardened. That had to be the answer. They didn't want her. An arm was easy to hide and proclaim to normal, but her cross…that was abnormal. The green eyed monster crept itself into Katsu's heart, feasting on her growing anger and resentment. It was one thing for Allen to force his feelings onto her, and another for him to have lived happily with _their_ parents.

Katsu's left arm slammed against the table beside her. The bang resonated throughout the room, startling the other occupants. Katsu's jaw clenched and eyes narrowed when Allen's eyes fell on her. He had all she wanted, and was forcing the little hardships he felt onto her. Just looking into his eyes disgusted her.

Without a word, she stormed out the door, in a worse mood than she had returned to the Order with. Oh how she wanted to hit something now. Preferably Allen's face, cause him even _some_ of the pain she had endured during the years. The only thing holding her back from doing just that was the knowledge that she would only end up hurting herself.

She settled with storming into her room and sleeping off her anger. Maybe her anger would help keep those unwanted dream monsters away.

**Feel free to review. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**I forgot to mention this at the beginning of the last chapter. I will be following the manga until about the point it's at currently, ch. 216 roughly, before it completely switches to my own plot. I will have a few of the anime's fillers in here though, but not a lot. I find that most of them annoy me.**

**Anyway, enjoy. And feel free to review. :) **

By the next morning, Katsu's heart was beating frantically, her chest heaving and sweat collected against her skin. She woke with a start, immediately jumping out of her bed on high alert. The familiar jittery feeling of adrenaline rushing through her veins kept her attention sharp as she searched for those _abominable_ little _devils_. Due to the seemingly endless adrenaline, it took a few extra moments for Katsu to realize she was in her room at the Order, _safe_.

With this realization, Katsu shakily collapsed onto her bed. Her limbs twitched as she stared up at the ceiling, trying to calm her racing heart. Even still, Katsu's fingers instinctively ran across her collar bone, tracing the raised scar that decorated the skin like a necklace.

For the rest of her morning routine, Katsu worked on auto pilot. When she pulled on her Exorcist jacket, her finger traced against her scar again, shivering at the feeling of the uneven flesh. With a deep breath, Katsu proceeded to put on her bandages on her arms, thankful that she got Johnny to shorten her sleeves to her elbows. She ran her fingers through her short hair and pulling on her pants before deeming herself presentable. Silently, she made her way towards the cafeteria, stomach growling.

As Katsu travelled through the halls of the Black Order, her mind managed to push past the constrictive protective barriers her brain set up, allowing her to think. She didn't think of much, though. Too wary that the smallest thought would resurface the memories she'd been trying to keep down for the longest time. She wasn't going to let those demon spawns get to her.

She shivered as that thought was the door way that the negative thoughts needed. _They already had._

As a result, when she entered the cafeteria, the noise of the multiple conversations happening around her fell on deaf ears. She continued to walk like a robot until she stood before Jerry waiting to order. Her mouth moved and vocal chords worked without her realizing what she said. She only knew for sure that she had ordered something sweet and sugary and in large quantities. Her brain was lingering on those three horrifying words.

"-tsu? Katsu? Are you alright?"

Katsu blinked, her brain finally reburying the nagging thoughts for a later date. She turned to face the person who had spoken. Like a flick of a switch, any and all numbness left her system as the day's previous events returned to her. The only visible sign of any change within her was the twitch of her brow, as she stared back at her _brother_. God, why did he have to look like her? Why did he have to look _just like her?_

_It makes me more like _them, Katsu thought sourly.

"Fine." Katsu snapped.

Allen's head tilted, as a curious, empathetic gleam flickered in his eyes. "Are you sure? It looks like you haven't slept."

Lip twitching, Katsu turned her back to the silver haired boy. "Stop caring. I told you I'm fine. If anyone should know if I'm fine or not, it would be me."

Jerry appeared in the little window with her food, his own empathetic look in his eye. "Here you go, honey. Cheer up, alright?"

With a curt nod, Katsu precariously balanced her many plates full of all things sweet and started towards the only somewhat empty table in the cafeteria; the one by Kanda. On her way, she overheard Jerry tell Allen, "She just had a bad mission is all. She'll be fine by tomorrow."

Katsu frowned as she set her food in front of Kanda's. A brief glance in her direction was the only indication that he recognized her presence. The twitch of his lip, his silent approval.

This was why Katsu enjoyed Kanda's presence. He didn't try to fill the air with pointless small talk, or bother her when it was obvious she was trying to deal with something on her own and didn't want to be bothered. It was a breath of fresh air for her.

In a fluid motion, Katsu sat and dug into her food. Her taste buds barely registered the sweet taste of the sugar as it coated her tongue. The only thing she focused on was the slow buzz that began to over ride her system as she consumed more sugar. As the buzz rose, so did her mood and the more she forgot about that horrid dream. Not to mention it was nice to have a full stomach.

Amongst her hurried inhaling of her food (there really wasn't a more accurate word) Katsu registered Kanda's growing agitation. She took the moment to slow her eating and push through her robot defenses to absorb her surroundings. Amongst the mindless chatter was the quite obnoxious conversation taking place at the finders' table behind Kanda. They were discussing a recent finder's death-the one that had been on the mission with Katsu, she was depressed to recognize. Katsu could usually see no problem with that. She even mourned with them. But they were talking much louder than the other whispers around the room. And they weren't saying very nice things about "the Exorcist that had been on the mission with him."

Katsu's fist clenched, and her muscles tensed ready to spring up and yell at the offending finders. She _knew_ she failed everyone during her mission. _Especially_ the finder who had been with her. She knew this, and she beat herself up about it plenty. She didn't need these worthless, powerless finders to critique her too. It's not like they would have been able to do any better than she did. All the finders could do was find, hold back and die. And die they did. It was almost as if they died faster than cockroaches could procreate.

Kanda beat her to the punch, much to her dismay. In a much calmer fashion than Katsu had been planning. "Be quiet! My meal tastes bad when you talk about dead people and trash talk Exorcists."

The burly finder behind Kanda spun around in his seat glaring. Had his eyes been lasers, Kanda would have had two holes in his head. "Your meal tastes bad? That's how you respect those who have died?"

"No," Katsu snapped, "It's how we respect people who have no respect to those who tried their best. You don't see us trash talking you lot when you die on us, or don't prove your usefulness time and time again. Nor do we mention how _replaceable_ you are in an attempt to make you try harder."

The finder turned his glare on Katsu. "How can you be sure it's always our fault? If you guys did your jobs properly, maybe there would be less finders dying out there."

Katsu faltered, but tried to hide it beneath a glare. She _had _ tried her best. She did try to save him.

Kanda quickly came to her aid. "If you are so afraid of dying, leave. As Katsu said, you're easily replaceable."

The finder cried out in rage, "I have no fear of death. But I won't stand around and watch my comrades die while being disrespected!" He raised his arm to throw a punch at Kanda. Kanda easily avoided the attack, as if it had been performed at a snail's pace before spinning around and grabbing the offending finder in a choke hold. With a resounding gasp, the entire cafeteria turned their attention onto the three of three.

"Do not force your anger onto those that have the power of Innocence simply because you are jealous. If the Innocence had seen something within you, you would be an Exorcist and not a measly finder," Kanda reprimanded.

"Stop it." All eyes turned to face the new voice. With a twitch of her brow, Katsu realized it was Allen. He gripped the wrist Kanda was grasping the finder with. "I know it's probably none of my business, and I have nothing to do with this, but this won't solve anything."

Katsu stood up, glaring at Allen, her hands resting against the table. "You're right. It is none of your business. Back off and stop getting in the _damn_ way."

Blank eyes met fiery ones in a stare down. Allen was the first to speak, breaking the silence. "I apologize for whatever it is that has you angry at me. I'm also sorry that you had an unsuccessful mission, but I really don't think you should take it out on other people." He glanced over to Katsu to signal that his comment was directed at her too.

"You don't know when to shut up, do you Moyashi?" Kanda growled, glaring furiously at Allen.

Allen's attention returned to Kanda, as the red hand around Kanda's wrist tightened, forcing him to release the finder.

"My name is Allen." He retorted.

"Che, I'll bother remembering it if you don't die in a month."

Katsu wanted to blow up at Allen, accuse him of not really being sorry. Tell him that it was completely his fault for messing her life up her already messed up life in the time span of less than twenty four hours. She didn't however, afraid of his answer. Instead, she simply left the room, leaving the two Exorcists in a glaring match that would hopefully not burn the entire Order down.

Not an hour later, those two had been sent on a mission. Katsu spent the rest of the morning with Lenalee and her brother, attempting to clean her brother's office, with little success. The only thing that was successful was Lenalee and Komui attempting to cheer Katsu up until she ended up blowing up at them. Lenalee proceeded to hug her while Komui watched on with knowing eyes, sipping at his coffee. (He was also doing that for the entire time "they" were cleaning.)

Katsu stood awkwardly as Lenalee embraced her. "So it was them again last night? You dreamt of them?" Lenalee asked softly, after listening to Katsu's long rant.

Katsu nodded mutely. All will to talk had left her body after her explosion.

"They aren't going to hurt you anymore. You are stronger and you have us and the entire Order supporting you. You know none of us would allow them to hurt you."

Katsu shook her head. "But they are," she whispered. "And it's as if they're mocking me with Allen's presence. What cruel twist of fate gave me a _twin_?" Katsu fought off the tears that were prickling the corners of her eyes.

Lenalee didn't reply, simply expressing all her sympathies through her hug. "Not all siblings, let alone twins are like that. You and Allen don't have to be like that." She whispered into her ear, comfortingly, before she let go with a reassuring smile. "Why don't you get some lunch. I'm sure that will help make you feel better."

Taking a deep breath, she nodded. Though, Katsu didn't move until she felt sure that there were no more tears threatening to fall. With a small smile to Lenalee and Komui, she left the room and headed towards the cafeteria.

She was alone, downing another unhealthy amount of sweets when it happened…again.

Like a flick of a switch, the sight of her food in front of her disappeared. All she could see was an unchanging blanket of darkness, as if the lights in the room had gone out. Katsu knew however that the lights had not gone out in the cafeteria. Katsu kept her attention downwards, towards her food. She didn't want the others in the room to react negatively to the eyes that she knew were now red.

She took the darkness in stride though, it wasn't uncommon for her to lose her sight in random intervals. At the very least she wasn't in a battle with akuma.

With the loss of her sight, she was now able to clearly hear all the whispered conversations in the room as well as a faint, pleasant, happy piano melody. Katsu easily recognized the call of Lenalee's Innocence.

A warm flush of Innocence being activated shook Katsu from enjoying the sound of Lenalee's Innocence. It was the same warm feeling Katsu had felt last night when she met Allen…

Her eyes widened. It couldn't be possible. Allen couldn't also be connected to her random blindness, could he? What could possibly trigger it if he was? Was it a reaction that occurred before he activated? No, he had activated the night before and she still had her sight. Was Allen unable to see right now during his mission? Or was it another reaction that only she was subject to?

Katsu stood, planning to head back to Komui's office and demand his opinion when she stumbled, crashing back on to her chair as if she had just been thrown through a wall. The chair fell over and she hit the ground roughly. Her chest felt tight and her head was sore. Quivering, Katsu tried to stand again, a hand cradling her throbbing head.

"Katsu?" Katsu turned slowly at the sound of Jerry's voice. "Is something the matter, hon?"

Katsu shook her head, "I'm fine, just tired. Lost my balance." She smiled reassuringly as she pushed herself up off the floor. Carefully, she made her way out of the cafeteria with experience, holding her right arm out to keep her from walking into a closed door. Her slow but steady progress paid off when she made it to the door without collapsing.

She never made it out the door, though. She managed to turn the handle before gasping out in pain as she felt a claws pierce through her shoulder. Katsu's hand moved from her head to her shoulder, tightening her grip on the door handle.

It took her a moment before she realized that her hand was wet. Gasping, Katsu fought the instinct to bring her moist hand in front of her blind eyes to confirm her suspicions. She knew, despite the visual evidence that she was undoubtedly bleeding.

Mere seconds after this realization that pain tore through Katsu's middle. It felt as if three spears pierced her simultaneously. Katsu stumbled back and fell to the ground at the invisible force. She hit the ground with a thud, other arm falling across her stomach. A wordless cry falling from her lips.

Distantly, as her consciousness faded, Katsu recognized the feeling of blood soaking through her Exorcist robes and into her bandages.

**Shorter, I know. But if you dislike the cliff hanger, blame my friend. She suggested that I split this chapter and the next for dramatic effect.**

**Anyways, reviews are much appreciated. So are suggestions. I'd love to hear what you think of Katsu and the story so far. I may update a little bit quicker for I have the next two weeks off (FREEDOM XD)**

**Happy Holidays Everyone!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own. I only own Katsu and any part of the plot that is not recognizable from the -Man manga/anime. All mistakes are mine. Feel free to point them out so I can fix them. :) **

Allen bit back a groan as he dragged Kanda and Toma through the underground maze. His muscles burned with the strain, and his breathing grew ragged. It didn't help that he was completely and totally lost.

"Please Master Walker, leave me here. You're also wounded, you shouldn't strain yourself," Toma whispered from his place over Allen's shoulder.

"I will do no such thing. Besides, I'm fine." Allen replied cheerily.

Toma didn't reply and Allen knew that Toma was doubtful about him being fine. Allen himself was growing increasingly worried, over something else altogether. Despite the blood stains on his Exorcist uniform, there were no wounds on his body. He felt no pain other than the strain of supporting two men on either shoulder.

Allen knew that he had taken many-very serious-wounds. He had felt the initial pain of getting flung through multiple walls, and of the Akuma stabbing him, both through the shoulder and stomach. Yet, after that initial pain, it had melted away and his wounds healed themselves. This had never happened before to this extent. His wounds would always be his own, but the pain caused by them would always fade. What could possibly cause the change now?

Regardless, he needed to find a place where he could rest and try and help Kanda and Toma with their injuries, without the oh-so-helpful Akuma butting in.

Allen's ears perked up when a soft vocal melody drifted to his ears. _A song? What could be causing the music down here?_

Taking his chances, Allen shifted his direction towards the sound hoping it was a sign of a safe place to rest.

Slowly he shuffled, focused on the direction of the music. As he shuffled along, he managed to come across a large stadium like room. In the center sat the girl and the man that had been with Kanda earlier. From this distance, he just managed to make out the last of their conversation.

The girl flung herself around the sick man, declaring, "Lala is Guzol's doll. What shall I sing next?"

Guzol coughed, "I am ugly…an ugly human."

Allen stumbled as his toe caught on a lose stone on the ground, and he toppled ungracefully to the floor. The loud noise caused Guzol and Lala to turn their attention to him and his unconscious comrades.

Allen lifted his head, rubbing the back of it both in nervousness and to ease the already disappearing pain. "Ah, sorry for interrupting. I don't mean to appear to be eavesdropping, but…you're the doll, aren't you?" Allen said, focusing his attention on Lala.

Lala's one eye glared at Allen as he pushed himself up from his position on the floor. Allen's eyes stayed locked on the hand that was tightening around the pillar next to Lala. Instinctively, his arms grabbed for Kanda and Toma who had fallen beside him.

In the second it took Allen to blink, Lala had the pillar up in the air supported by her arms and aimed dangerously at Allen.

"Eeh?" Was the only thing he allowed out of his mouth as he scrambled to pick up Kanda and Toma to pull them out of harm's way. Eyes widened as the breeze of the flying pillar rustled Allen's hair. From the corner of his eye, he watched the pillar miss them by millimeters and hit the wall that had been behind them.

"Just wait a minute!" Allen frantically called out, "Let's talk about this…calmly!" The last word came out louder than intended as Allen narrowly missed getting hit by another large rock.

_Alright, talking isn't her thing at the moment._ Allen thought as he rested the two men gently on the ground. Once both were settled and out of harm's way, Allen removed his glove and activating his Innocence. He ran in another direction from where he had placed his comrades, in hopes to diverge Lala's attention from them.

It worked as she followed Allen's movements by aiming the next pillar at him. The moment Allen stood still, Lala threw the rock. Anticipating this action, Allen threw up his Innocence arm, and catching it with his claws. Lala's eyes widened as he threw the rock back at her. Shocked, she stood waiting for the impact.

It never came. When she opened her eyes, she came face to face with Allen holding the pillar in his silver arm as he lounged in front of her with a peaceful smile on his face.

"You have nothing left to throw," Allen said, trying not to anger the girl. "Please tell me what's going on. I'd rather not fight a pretty girl."

Lala sat, silent. It was obvious this boy was different than the dark haired one that had rescued them from those monsters. Perhaps he would be more willing to understand. He hadn't let the pillar hit her, after all. He would have been able to get her heart had he simply killed her.

"Guzol's going to die soon!" She exclaimed, her voice breaking on the word, die. She loved him; he had understood her when no other human would. She wanted to be there for him, in his last moments like he had always been there for her. "Please let me stay with him until he's gone. Once he is, I'll give you my heart!"

Shakily, Lala explained how she met Guzol, and watched the boy hesitantly. She searched for any sign of him denying her, her wish, but nothing showed.

Hope welled through Lala's voice as she clung to Guzol, exclaiming, "Please just let me stay with him until the end. I can hear his heart weakening. Just let me stay with him until it stops, then I'll give you my heart, I swear."

"No."

Lala looked over, heartbroken at the denial. However it hadn't been Allen who had spoken. Instead it was the dark haired man, Kanda. Even bloody and weak, he sat up, glaring. "We came here to protect the Innocence. We don't have the time to wait for that old man to die. The Akuma will find us soon and we need the Innocence before it gets it." He turned his glare on Allen. "Take the Innocence now."

After a moment of tense silence, Allen shook his head. "I can't do it." He couldn't tear those two apart when it was so obvious they just wanted to spend their last moments together.

Kanda snarled as he threw Allen's Exorcist jacket back at him. He had originally given it to Kanda as an added support to his wounds. "This isn't a pillow for the wounded. It's an Exorcist's jacket. As an Exorcist, there are sacrifices that must be made." He pushed himself off the ground, stalking past Allen, towards Lala who was encased in Guzol's arms.

He unsheathed Mugen, holding it level to Lala's heart.

"Wait, then I'll do it." Allen interrupted, turning in Kanda's direction harshly. "I will destroy the Akuma. Then there will be no problem in waiting for the man to die. They should at least be able to have their last wish granted."

Kanda stared silently back at Allen, his gaze hard. Allen tried to read what was going through the swordsman's head with little success. However it became painfully clear when he got a punch to his cheek, snapping his head to the side. The effect was not lost, even as Kanda fell to the ground out of physical exhaustion. In the background, Toma could be heard calling out to Kanda in worry.

"How incredibly naïve of you. Risking your life for some strangers. Don't you have something important to fight for?"

Allen lifted himself off the ground from where he lay, due to the force of Kanda's attack, eyes distant as he responded. "I did have something important…but I lost it long ago." Regaining a sense of reality, Allen met Kanda's gaze. "I'm not doing this for noble reasons. I just don't want to see them hurt in their final moments."

Kanda glared, "What about Katsu, your sister? Are you going to die without getting the chance to know her?"

Allen tilted his head slightly as curiosity flashed through his eyes. Why did Kanda care for Katsu so much? He seemed so cold and distant, yet he got defensive about her. Allen briefly thought back to how the dark haired Exorcist had stood up for her back at the Order.

Allen, however, felt no immediate attachment for the girl. True she was his twin, proven through Komui's scientific tests, but they had only just met. She was nothing more than an acquaintance to him. One that appeared to hate him for reasons he couldn't understand. Allen shook his head, bringing his mind back to the moment. "I hardly doubt she'd miss me. We don't even know each other."

Kanda's lip curled, "Then don't do reckless things before you get the chance."

Allen blinked owlishly before shaking his head a second time, glancing at Lala and Guzol. "But they also deserve a chance to get a final happiness. At the moment, I could care less about what is needed elsewhere. If someone in front of me needs help I will do everything in my power to help them. I want to help everyone I can!"

"Che, only a Moyashi like you would be stupid enough to throw his life away recklessly," Kanda scoffed.

Allen's eyes narrowed as he stood, trying to appear threatening. "My name's Allen. But a BaKanda like you would have a hard time remembering, right?"

"Are you the one who has a hard time remembering things? I told you if you survived the month I'd bother learning your name. It seems I was right not to bother with the way you're headed. Might as well die today."

Due to the duet's bickering, they hadn't noticed the long silver claw that stealthily crept up from behind Guzol and Lala. In a swift movement that startled all five people in the room, the claw hooked around the two, pulling them away from the Exorcists.

"The Akuma," Allen growled, turning towards the direction the claw disappeared. He couldn't see anything amongst the gathering cloud of dust.

With a whirr, Allen's eye activated at the same moment the Akuma exploded from the sandy ground, throwing the dust particles everywhere. A large inhuman smile adorned its face as it held a much more doll like looking version of Lala in one hand with the other claw sticking out through Guzol's chest. "I've got the Innocence!" It sang happily.

Allen watched wide eyed as the Akuma dropped the two hostages haphazardly, not caring that they fell like rag dolls to the ground. It was much more focused on the Innocence within the container. It starred, amazed at the thought of successfully completing its mission. Oh, how the Earl would be so proud of him!

Unexplainable, uncontainable rage swelled through Allen, burning its way through his veins and pooling within his heart and left arm. He stared at the Akuma blankly, unable to let even a sliver of his rage show through his face. Though the deadly calm expression did seem much more frightening. "Give it back." Allen demanded, not even noticing his arm react harshly, changing and reforming itself. "Give the Innocence back."

Alarmed, the Akuma stared back at Allen, unmoving. How entertaining, these Exorcists were. The Akuma almost wanted to laugh. That feeling quickly dispersed as he noticed a shadow from above him, and the white haired Exorcist no longer in the spot he had previously stood.

In midair, Allen aimed his arm at the Akuma as if it were second nature. He watched as his arm had molded itself into a gun like shape and began shooting at the Akuma. It was as if he was watching it happen to someone else. It was as if his arm had a mind of its own.

The light like bullets flew at the Akuma in rapid succession, throwing sand in the air as some hit the ground around it. Eventually, they began to form a tower as they landed on top of each other, allowing Allen to fall from his jump and onto the tower. He looked down at where the Akuma had previously been and saw nothing. A sense of satisfaction swelled within him.

It was short lived, however, when he saw something crawling through the sand. Allen watched it with a critical eye. As his eyes passed over Guzol and Lala lying on the ground, his resolve for defeating the Akuma grew. He would not let it get away for hurting those two.

As it burrowed through the sand, its laughter could be heard. "You can't hit me when I'm sand!" It exclaimed proudly.

Regardless of its boastful comment, Allen aimed his gun in the direction of the Akuma, ready to shoot. In the split second it took for Allen's gun to prepare fire, the deformed version of Allen's claw shot out at him from the sand. His quick reflexes were the only thing that stopped him from becoming a shish kabob…again.

While he was distracted, the Akuma flew towards Allen, while wearing the sand a shield. Still being suspended in the air, Allen didn't have much of a chance to twist himself out of the way. As a result, he got engulfed by the Akuma, swallowed into its sandy stomach.

The Akuma appearing like one big sand monster, laughed while holding its stomach like a jolly Santa. "I've got you now!" It raised its claw threateningly. "I wonder how many times I will have to stab you this time before you die?" Instantly the Akuma began to blindly stab its silver claw into its own stomach, trying to hit Allen.

Allen moved and dodged, despite his lack of sight. Once he noticed that all the attacks were directed at his front, he stuck his arm protectively in front of himself and let the Akuma hit him. The force of the Akuma's attack caused the claw to pierce Allen's arm. His arm was sturdier, stopping the claws from penetrating any further and letting the rest of the forward momentum to push Allen out of the Akuma.

The next moment was unexplainable to Allen, much like how he managed to work his new gun like weapon. It acted on its own, as if it was its own entity. As if the Innocence took control of Allen's brain, guiding him, showing him what to do. In a smooth movement, one of the light bullets extended its way out of the gun. But instead of firing, the gun closed around it, forming a sword.

This happened all in the course of a couple seconds, giving Allen ample time to slash it through the Akuma's sand skin as he fell back to the ground.

The Akuma was distraught. "No, not my sand skin!" The skin around the Akuma fell away, revealing its true form.

Allen landed on his feet, raising his arm. He swiftly changed his arm back into a gun, charging it for a large attack. "I won't give you another chance to put on another skin."

The Akuma merely smirked, not worried in the slightest. "I still have your arm!" It proclaimed proudly as it thrust it towards Allen.

The two attacks met head on. Allen focused his power into his attack, his mind running over what he had overheard Guzol say to Lala. He let these thoughts fuel him and over power the Akuma, drive it backwards until it collapsed through the wall. (Allen felt a small sense of satisfaction giving the Akuma a taste of its own medicine).

The victory was short lived. Just when Allen thought he had the upper hand, his body jolted, doubling in on itself. His arm deactivated and he coughed. As the dust cleared from the force of Allen's attack, he coughed again, covering his mouth. With surprise he found his hand covered in blood.

Shocked, Allen's body collapsed. What was going on? Allen groaned, as he continued to cough up blood. Pain wracked through his body. A terrible pain he had never experienced before in his life. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and pray that the pain would stop.

Taking advantage of Allen's temporary lack of attention, the Akuma reappeared from the wall. It grinned hesitantly, until it saw the injured Exorcist on the ground. Then it grinned widely, cackling. It was more than happy to attack Allen again.

Allen couldn't even focus through the pain. The only thing his mind was able to comprehend other than the pain was to question why this was happening now and _what_ was exactly happening.

The attack never hit its mark. A loud clang rang out instead. Blearily, Allen looked up, surprised to see Kanda standing before him, his katana blocking the Akuma's silver arm.

Kanda glowered down at Allen. "What the hell are you doing, you stupid idiot? Weren't you the one blabbering on about how you were going to save those two?" Kanda winced, wrapping his arm around his middle as it began to bleed through the cloth. It was the only indication that his body was under strain from fending off the Akuma. "I hate naive idiots and I especially hate people who don't keep their promises."

Allen coughed again, but tried to cover it with his left hand. He didn't want to appear weak before Kanda, nor could he let the severely injured man kill the Akuma. "You hate me either way then," Allen quipped with sardonic smile.

Kanda simply, "Che'd" in response.

Biting back other cough, he spoke through the tickle in his throat and tried to hide the obvious pain from his voice. "And I will fulfill my promise; I was just taking a break."

"Irritating," Kanda hissed, as he tensed before drawing his sward away in a movement that caused the Akuma's arm to fly up in the air.

Allen simply smiled weakly, raising his Innocence arm into the air, activating it. In a synchronized motion, Kanda activated Mugen's First Illusion while Allen shot the light bullets from his arm. Together, they destroyed the Akuma.

**Feel free to leave a review, it would make my day. :) I'd really like to know what you guys think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright, so here is the next chapter, I don't believe this is my best chapter, but no matter how many times I rewrote it and edited, this was the best I got. With that said, everything that needs to happen does, and I hope you enjoy. :)**

Lenalee stood at the Black Order's docks, waiting for Allen and Kanda to return anxiously. She desperately wanted to return to Katsu's side to offer support while she waited for her friend to wake up. However, she also wanted to make sure that Kanda and Allen had been successful on their mission. Komui had seen them enter the stream from one of the many golems and he had asked Lenalee to go meet them, to give them the news.

She wasn't looking forward to telling Kanda that Katsu had received many unexplainable, nearly fatal wounds while in the comfort of the Order. He was inexplicably protective of the girl, something that gave Lenalee a sense of peace. They had each other to rely on, even when they wouldn't let anyone else in.

Her heart jumped when she caught sight of the boat making it s way through the water, gliding steadily. As it drew closer, she was able to making out the finder guiding the boat, with Kanda hunched over in the middle of the boat. She couldn't catch sight of Allen though, from this angle. She was craning her neck to try and catch sight of the white haired boy with no luck.

Silence hung in the air around the four of them, as the finder docked the boat. He jumped out to tie the boat to the dock. The finder bowed to Lenalee. "Mistress Lenalee, the mission was a success."

Lenalee smiled, even though it felt forced on her lips. "That's good to hear. Why don't you go inside and get some sleep. I'm sure you must be very tired."

The finder nodded, "Thank you." And he made his way up the stairs.

Lenalee returned her attention back onto Kanda who was slowly making his way out of the boat. His arm was wrapped around his torso. Eyes slightly widened, Lenalee noticed the red bandages that decorated his chest.

"Kanda, are you alright?" She rushed over to help the black haired Exorcist.

Kanda grunted, "Fine." However he leaned heavily against Lenalee as he took the final step out of the boat.

"Where's Allen?" Lenalee let go of Kanda, once she was sure he had stable footing. She knew he didn't like to feel coddled.

"'M here, Lenalee." The voice was hoarse as it replied before being cut off by a round of coughing.

Lenalee looked down, her eyes catching sight of Allen. He was lying down at the front of the boat, curled in on himself. His back was to her, as it shook violently with each cough, rocking the boat. She knelt down beside the boat, her heart racing. How badly was Allen injured?

"Can you sit up?" She asked softly, her hand reaching out to gently touch Allen's shoulder.

"Yeah," Allen wheezed, slowly moving into an upright position. He moved to quickly for his body to handle, causing Allen to cough more harshly, doubling in on itself. His hand flew towards his mouth, the other around his torso. Even through the barrier his hand created, Lenalee could still make out the sight of blood.

"We have to get you to the hospital wing." She reached out to help Allen climb out of the boat. "What happened?"

"Moyashi decided he had to be a hero."

Allen took Lenalee's hand with the one that had been wrapped around his middle, accepting her help out of the boat. The process was slow, and Allen had to lean on Lenalee heavily.

"How bad was it?" She asked, as she and Allen shuffled up the stairs.

"I just pushed my Innocence too far," Allen whispered as he struggled to support himself. He didn't want to bother Lenalee. She, however, tightened her grip when he nearly tumbled to the floor.

Kanda snorted, "Baka. You know that isn't the reason."

Confused, Lenalee turned to Allen for an explanation. He shook his head, "I sustained a few injuries as well, but they've healed."

Lenalee shook her head, "Regardless, both of you should go to the hospital wing." She began to lead Allen up the stairs and away from the docks. As she moved, she mulled over the best way to break the news.

Allen noticed the change in her demeanor. "Are you okay, Lenalee? You look ill."

Lenalee sighed. "I'm fine, it's Katsu that I'm worried about."

Kanda's attention quickly focused on the two walking in front of him.

"Is she okay?" Allen asked, through a cough.

"She's stable."

Kanda glowered. "How bad is she?"

"Jerry and the other finders in the cafeteria were the ones who witnessed it. They said that as Katsu was starting to make her way out of the cafeteria when she collapsed. She stood up again, to assure Jerry that she was fine. Jerry said that her eyes were red again..." Lenalee glanced back at Kanda knowingly.

"Was it because she didn't have enough sleep?" Allen asked. It was the only solution he could come up with for Katsu's eyes to be bloodshot and her unsteadiness.

"No, that's not it, nor is it all. She had managed to make her way to the door without another incident. It wasn't before she reached the door that she cried out, falling to the ground again. She didn't stand up again, so Jerry rushed to her side. She had a three large stab wounds in her stomach and three shallower ones on her shoulder. Jerry rushed her to the hospital wing. She's currently stable."

Allen froze, before stumbling due to Lenalee's continued forward momentum. Three stab wounds to the stomach and shoulder, seemingly identical to the ones that he had received and had instantaneously healed.

"Allen, are you alright? We're almost there," Lenalee comforted. However, it fell on deaf ears. He could see Lenalee's lips moving as she stood in front of him, and he could see the worry in her eyes. But his brain didn't comprehend it. All he could think about was the wounds that had healed and Katsu now had.

"I-I'm fine, Lenalee," Allen whispered as he stumbled back into step.

The trio steadily made their way to the hospital wing. Once they arrived, Lenalee opened the door for the other two injured Exorcists to walk in. All chatter within the infirmary paused as all eyes watched the three walk in. Seconds later, they were aided by the nurses to hospital beds where they were laid down.

Amongst the rush, Allen kept his eyes trained on the singular section of the room that had been curtained off. The section where Katsu was no doubt laying. His vision was cut off, when a figure in a white uniform stepped up beside him. Allen glanced up to meet Komui's concerned gaze.

"How bad is it?" Komui asked.

"He appears to have no serious flesh wounds that are causing the coughing..." The Head Nurse reached for the buttons of Allen's Exorcist jacket. "If I may?"

Allen nodded, before quickly covering his mouth to cough again. He groaned. The continuous coughing was making his head, chest and stomach ache. Allen regarded the pain with mild shock. He was actually feeling the pain. Maybe that was why it felt so severe.

Cold fingers gently prodded against the skin of his chest, pausing against his abdomen and shoulder. The nurse met his gaze, "The skin is still tender, as if it has healed recently, though there are no signs of scars."

"Impossible..."Komui muttered, his eyes locked onto the fresh skin tissue that mirror the injuries Katsu now possessed.

"I don't know why my wounds healed. I do know that I hadn't felt any of my own wounds for a good couple years."

"Your coughing couldn't be due to the injury you received then." The head nurse said.

Allen tried to smile reassuringly at the nurse, "I just over worked my anti-akuma weapon. I'm fine."

"Lies." The nurse accused. "Never once has an Exorcist come to me coughing up blood due to over working their Innocence." She stared down at him with a critical eye.

Komui however seemed to have connected the dots. "Allen, can you answer this next question truthfully?" Allen nodded. "Did you receive these wounds while on your mission?"

"Yes." Allen replied shakily. So his presumptions hadn't been far off after all. Guilt tore away in his gut. He never meant to cause harm to Katsu when he received the injuries. They were products of his own stupidity.

"And it is true you never felt the pain of your injuries before either?" Komui continued.

"Not since I became Cross' apprentice." Allen shuddered as some unwanted memories of his time with Cross popped up in his head. Recovering, he added. "You think that Katsu has been on the receiving end of it all this time?"

Komui nodded. "She'd always had unexplainable pain. The only thing I can think of as a possible answer would have to be the Innocence. Hevlaska did mention the two of you were connected through Innocence. Perhaps coming into contact with each other strengthened the tie."

The silence that followed was broken by Allen's harsh coughing.

The head nurse fretted. "I need to stop the coughing before you lose too much blood," she muttered. "What could be the cause of it? If I knew that I could try to stop it." She mumbled to herself, looking Allen over for any possible cause.

"I think the best thing at the moment would be to help Katsu heal. Would it not make sense that for a connection to take place, one both gives and receives? So far, Katsu has been doing all the receiving. There has to be a point where the pain is returned to Allen."

The nurse huffed, "Fine, for now just get some rest." With a final threatening glare Allen's way, the nurse made her way over to Katsu's enclosed corner.

Allen nodded, as he tried to bite back another cough.

A few days later, Katsu was conscious again and Allen had stopped coughing. Allen had been allowed to leave the infirmary with strict rules to take it easy and not go on any missions for a few days. Katsu on the other hand was confined to her bed in the hospital, her wounds still healing. When she had been told this information, there had been a loud bickering match between the Head Nurse and Katsu. The nurse won.

The first day Allen had been permitted to leave his bed, he visited Katsu's little enclosed corner. When he pushed back the curtain to step inside the make shift room, he noticed Kanda leaning against the left wall by Katsu's feet, arms crossed. Despite Kanda's normal standoff attitude, Allen noticed tension in Kanda's shoulders, and a slight frown on his lips as he stared at Katsu. Katsu was returning the stare, though a sense of uncertainty lingered in her eyes.

They both turned in his direction when he stepped into the room however, and both their features turned harsh.

"What are you doing here, Moyashi?" Kanda demanded.

Allen's eye twitched at the nickname. "I came to check on Katsu. Are you alright?" He focused his attention on his sister.

Kanda glared at Allen, before glancing over at Katsu. She nodded towards him and with a quick "Che," he left the small enclosure.

Once Kanda left, Katsu focused on Allen with a fierce glare, her arms crossed over her chest. "Just peachy, thanks for caring. You can leave now."

Allen stood his ground. "Look, I'm sorry for putting you through this. Komui told me of his theory, and if there was any way for me to control it, I would deal with all my injuries and pain. I wouldn't intentionally hurt you."

Katsu scoffed, looking away from him. But Allen caught a brief flicker of an emotion she was trying to hide. Hope. Did Katsu truly think he was intentionally trying to hurt her?

As Katsu stared at the stone wall, she re-crossed her arms. The movement directed Allen's attention to them. He noticed that they were bare due to the hospital garb and lack of bandages covering them. This left the black swirl designs that decorated the entirety of her arms visible for all to see. The patterns also resembled the small cross she had tattooed on her left cheek. Was that her Innocence? Allen remembered the first night he had met Katsu, when she jumped from a ledge of the Black Order. Her skin had been completely black, before it faded away and on the one arm that hadn't been bandaged, revealed designs that she wore now. Though he swore they had only gone up to her elbows on that first night. With a brief glance down, Allen noticed her legs were decorated the same.

"Have your arms and legs always had that many swirls on them?" Allen asked, motioning to her arms.

Katsu's gaze remained firmly on the wall to her side, though one hand rubbed her arm. There was a moment of silence before she spoke. "No." The short reply was met with more uncomfortable silence.

"I'm just trying to make conversation."

Katsu's icy gaze fell on him, "And I'm not. I would appreciate it if you left. Maybe even get Komui to bring me some of Jerry's cooking, if you're so intent on trying to be nice to me."

Allen sighed. He realized he wasn't going to get through to Katsu at the moment. It was going to take some time to work past whatever grudge she had against him for causing her pain. But, he was willing to do it. Perhaps Kanda had been right when he said he still had to live for Katsu. Who knew what would happen if he let himself die. Would Katsu die as well?

With that thought in mind, he silently left the small enclosure to hunt down Komui.

A week later Katsu was permitted to leave the infirmary, and go back to her room with strict orders not to push herself until she was completely healed in another week or so. Unfortunately this meant she couldn't train as hard as she preferred, or with Kanda since they both tended to get rough in their sparring matches. It did give her an out from seeing Allen every day, though. The boy had been persistent, coming to see her every day, at different points during the day.

It annoyed Katsu. Had it been anyone else, she would have welcomed the company. However, being forced to see her own face-though deformed in a different way than hers-and know that it was because of his injuries that she was in the weak state she was in now, just made her blood boil. Not to mention, she hadn't been in the infirmary for an injury this sever since she was first introduced to the Order. That notion only served to give her nightmares.

Now, though, she had learned most of Allen's daily schedules. She planned hers to avoid him. Such as entering the cafeteria ten minutes after he left. And leaving exactly an hour after she entered, so in case he was looking to try and bond with her more, she wouldn't be in one of the first places he was likely to look if his appetite was anything like hers. She then rotated in no particular order to the other rooms, her favourite being the meditation room. She meditated with Kanda on multiple occasions.

Katsu always meant for her meditations to clear her mind and let her focus on relaxing herself when she was particularly stressed. That was something she need at a time like this, but due to her mind being full of so many other things to think about, to worry about, to be angry about, to _remember_ Katsu's meditations were times she tortured herself more than she helped herself. It never deterred her from her relentless efforts to put a stop to all the negative thoughts though.

This was where she was, a week later when Komui's monthly "Let's wreck havoc on the Order" began.

She was able to ignore most of the loud giant like footsteps and alarmed cries for a good while. That was until Allen came running into the room she was meditating in, bringing that horrid robot with him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Katsu demanded, glaring at Allen from her spot at the back of the room.

Allen's wild gaze met hers. "Running for my life from a robot because Komui didn't like the fact it was trying to make Lenalee more manly."

Katsu's lips twitched before letting out a short laugh as she tried to picture Lenalee as "more manly". "Tell me how that goes."

"Aren't you going to help me?"

Katsu raised her brow and scoffed. "No, you've got to learn how to deal with Komui's contraptions on your own. You proclaim you're a big bad Exorcist, don't you? Then deal with it yourself."

The crashing sound drew near which was soon followed by an ear shattering crash and bang. The robot had crashed their little party. And the wall. She was _so_ going to make Komui fix that on his own.

"I must fix Allen Walker's Innocence," The robot droned, its eye scanning the room. The eye flashed red. "There are two Allens. Must fix both of their anti-akuma weapons."

"Damn it Allen." Katsu stood, punching Allen hard in the shoulder, only to roll her own shoulder when she felt the dull ache. "I thought I didn't want to be pulled into your shit."

"Now would be a good time to run," Allen suggested before taking off.

The robot watched Allen leave, but remained in place. "I will fix Allen Two's Innocence before pursuing Allen One."

"My name is Katsu you damn hunk of metal. And my Innocence is fine!" Katsu stomped her foot.

To prove her point, Katsu activated it, her skin becoming as hard as diamond. She was just about to attack it when Komui and a couple of the scientists came running in. Komui began to throw a fit, stamping his feet and throwing his hands in the air.

Katsu had to settle for ignoring it for the time being as the other scientists tried to calm Komui down.

"You can't kill my baby! I put blood sweat and tears into creating Sir Komlin the Second!" Komui cried.

Katsu's expression was hardly sympathetic. "Komui, it seems you have yet to learn the limits of creating your contraptions. When they start to be more harmful than useful, you know you need to destroy it. Now are you going to do the honours or shall I?"

Komui began to whine, shaking his head back and forth.

Reever spoke up however. "What about Allen?"

"He ditched the second the robot thought there were two of us. Really, Komui, you could have at least programmed it to be a little bit smarter." This time when the robot attacked with one of its arms, Katsu hit back, her Innocence cutting through the metal. "How Allen didn't think to do this in the first place is beyond me."

Komui, desperate to save his baby, ran at Katsu, tackling her to the ground. Katsu didn't hesitate to hit Komui back, sending him flying. Without second's pause, Katsu felt a familiar tingle in her wrist and let a shuriken fly through the air and hit the robot in what could be referred to as its shoulder.

Allen decided either it was safe to return, or his guilt gnawed away at him, telling him he had to come back to help. Either way, Allen ran back through the door-or hole would be more accurate.

"Katsu, you're still alive!"

Katsu glared, "Yeah, no thanks to you. Now would you care to give me a hand or would you prefer to stand and watch? If so, get out of the way."

"I'll help!" Allen also activated his Innocence, pointing the silver gun in the direction of the robot. Just as it began to light up to fire, there was a soft, pew sound before Allen collapsed to the ground. "My body...feels like butterflies..." He mumbled almost incoherently.

Katsu immediately turned her attention in Komui's direction as she administered another blow. In his hand was a small blow pipe.

"Komui! You can't just paralyze people!" Katsu exclaimed angrily, while Reever and a couple other scientists tackled Komui to the ground. It was times like these that Katsu appreciated the fact that her Innocence didn't allow anything to pierce through it. Otherwise she'd be sharing the same fate as Allen and they'd all be doomed.

With Komui pinned, Katsu deemed now was as good a time as any to finish off the robot. Jumping up, Katsu climbed the robot, avoiding its arms as it tried to attack her. Once on its head, Katsu didn't waver in administering the killing blow to its head. The robot immediately collapsed to the ground, destroyed.

Katsu jumped off the robot, dusting off her hands.

The scientists-except for Komui-were cheering her name, and Allen groaned in the corner. Katsu nodded to them before making her way out of the once proper meditating room. Now she and Kanda would have to find a supplementary one until they fixed this one. Katsu sighed. What a pain.

As she passed Allen, she only gave him a glance. Whatever Komui injected him with would probably wear off soon and leave few damaging effects. Nothing Allen couldn't deal with on his own. Katsu was simply glad the drugs worked quickly enough to avoid being affected herself. Now to continue avoiding the annoying albino.

A couple months later, the meditation room was once again fixed. Katsu had complained about it taking them so long to fix it, but once it was, she immediately put it to use.

This was the place that Lenalee found her, crossed legged on the floor, eyes closed, hands resting loosely on her knees.

"Katsu," Lenalee called softly, knowing the girl got particularly angry if someone was unnecessarily noisy when she was trying to meditate.

Katsu's eye twitched a sign that she heard Lenalee.

Lenalee spoke again with slightly more volume. "Nii-san wants us down in his office for a mission."

Katsu's ears perked. She had been itching to get out on a mission ever since she had been let out of the infirmary. To get a chance to prove herself again to the finders that were doubtful and resistant to her latest performance. Not to mention it would keep Allen out of her sights for a while.

She stood leisurely, stretching, and popped a few joints. "All right, let's go." With a new spring in her step, Katsu walked with Lenalee down to Komui's office.

Once she opened the doors to the cluttered room, all potential happiness for receiving a mission left her. For a mop of white hair hit her eyes, and with it, the presence of her brother. Katsu shivered. How it sent shivers down her spine to refer to Allen in such a way.

Irritation flared as she slowly made her way to Allen's side, Lenalee in step with her.

"Is it really necessary that he comes on the mission with us?" Katsu snapped, words like knives.

Allen's shoulders slumped in a sigh.

Komui spoke, startling Katsu to his presence. Not only was his voice weak with lack of sleep, he barely seemed to be able to poke his head out from the massive number of books he had on top of him. "I understand that you have some hard feelings towards Allen. However, with the new discoveries, it would be impractical to put the two of you on separate missions. I know that you've dealt with the blindness before, but never to the extent of receiving injuries that may be fatal. And wouldn't you prefer being in a situation where you can have some control in preventing any injuries you receive?"

Katsu grumbled. She couldn't argue with that. Though if it came down to her constantly having to save Allen's butt because he was unable to do so on his own, she would make a serious complaint to Komui to get him retrained. Regardless if he was Cross' apprentice or not.

Komui spoke in a sigh, "Now on this next mission there's likely to be Innocence, more like a maybe. There might be Innocence." Komui's eyes fluttered. _He really needs some sleep,_ Katsu thought as she waited for Komui to get some coherent thoughts through his sleep deprived brain. "How do I say this? There seems to be a town that rewinds, repeating the same day over and over."

"That's got to be incredibly boring, repeating the same day." Katsu remarked.

"It would be horrible if it was a bad day too," Allen added.

Katsu tensed. _What if _those_ days kept repeating? What if it never ended? Would that be the literal definition of Hell?_ Katsu shook her head. _No, that's all over now. Those days didn't go on forever. And they won't happen ever again if I have any say in the matter._

The three around Katsu seemed to be particularly perceptive at that moment and they noticed Katsu's reaction to Allen's remark. Katsu regretted ever making that comment. She motioned for Komui to continue, in hopes to make people forget what happened so she wouldn't be questioned on it later.

"Right, well, we have a liquor wholesaler as a witness. He received a call from a bar in the town in question asking for ten barrels of rose wine for before the tenth. He went to deliver them the next day. No matter how many times he went through the gate, the wholesaler returned to the outside of the town. He gave up and returned. He tried to call the bar, but didn't get an answer. Every day since, he's been receiving the same order at the same time. I tried to research it, but like the wholesaler, the finders were unable to enter."

"What makes you think we'll get in then?" Katsu asked.

Komui slowly took some of the books off himself as he elaborated. "That's where my theories come in. If this is an act of Innocence, then all Exorcists should be able to enter, and if the same day is repeating, you might not be able to exit once your inside. Due to the size of the town, it would take too long for one Exorcist on their own to research the whole town on their own. That's why I'm sending the three of you." Komui flicked his hand in a dismissive gesture, "That's all."

With a quick shared glance, the three Exorcists made their way out of the office got ready for their immediate departure.

**Feel free to review, I'd love to here your thoughts, especially on this chapter. Also, a side note, my updating may lag a little, seeing as school is starting again and I have some exams to study for. With that said, I will update again though. I love this story too much :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**This is the beginning of the Rewinding Town arc. It is currently one of my favourites to write, simply for the fact that we'll get to delve into Katsu's mind and past. :) I hope you guys enjoy the beginning of it.**

The three Exorcists met up with the finder just outside the rewinding city. He filled them in on his observations that no other soul had entered or left the town in the time that he had been stationed there.

"Do you really think we can get in?" Allen asked watching the archway to the town hesitantly.

"What's the worst that can happen? We get spit back out here?" Katsu rolled her eyes. Stepping out in front, raising her hand out to the arch. Slowly, she extended her arm until her whole hand resided on the other side of the gate. It couldn't be seen from where they stood, as if it had been disconnected from her body. She turned her head to the others, and raised an eyebrow. Without another word, she walked through the arch way.

When she appeared on the other side, she was faced with a town that looked no different from any other. People of all ages were walking through the streets. Some children tugging on their mothers' arms as they pointed excitedly at an item in a window display. Katsu smiled fondly as she watched the children, as it reminded her of times when she was that little and naive. When she thought there was nothing bad in the world, nothing that would pull her out of her utopia. She just hoped those children didn't get the kind of wakeup call she did.

Katsu was still watching them closely when Lenalee and Allen joined her. They didn't disturb her for a moment. Allen watched her closely, amazed to see her face so relaxed, and open. Not tightened in anger or stress. She looked truly peaceful.

Lenalee was the one to break the silence. "So this is the rewinding town. It appears that Nii-san's theory was right."

Katsu tensed. She had been so lost in her memory of happy times she forgot for a moment that Lenalee and Allen were with her on this mission. "It seems so. He was also right about this going to take a long time. What is one supposed to look for when searching a town that continues to repeat?"

"Perhaps we should split up. We can cover more ground that way," Allen suggested.

Katsu agreed immediately. "I'm going to try this way. We can meet up in an hour or so by that pub." She pointed to the far corner of the street where a pub sign was hanging. When she got a nod of recognition, Katsu started in the direction she had designated for herself.

She kept a close eye on everything that was happening around her, looking for anything strange. These moments were always the ones Katsu hated the most on her missions. It was always the stale mate. She much preferred knowing where the Innocence was so she could get in, grab the Innocence, fight some akuma and get out.

Katsu wasn't sure how long she had been wondering for, but suddenly, her vision faded again. She tried to keep her walking steady as it happened, so she wouldn't draw any unnecessary attention onto herself. She focused on her ears however, as she walked. She was going to use this moment of blindness to her advantage.

While she avoided the footsteps of the people around her with skill that only came with dealing with the blindness for years, she kept an ear out for a certain sound in particular.

Distinct cries of pain, not due to physical pain, but that of emotional pain, registered in Katsu's ears. There was an akuma in town, and a level two to boot. Any doubt Katsu had about the town's strangeness not being caused by Innocence fled from her mind.

Katsu rushed towards the sound, weaving in and out of the crowds, trying to reach the akuma. She wasn't going to give it a chance to harm any of the town's folk. As she drew nearer to the sound, she could also make out the sound of a piano melody. _Innocence_, her mind supplied for her. But who's Innocence? She'd never heard that type of Innocence before. Could it be the Innocence that was causing the town to rewind?

_No, that would make this way too easy, _Katsu thought. _But then again, I'd never been in a situation before where I was able to listen for the Innocence I was trying to find._

In the moment she wasn't concentrating, she managed to run face first into a corner of a wall. Katsu swore, holding her now throbbing forehead. She berated herself. It had been a long time since she miscalculated before. She blamed it on her lack of experience with the town.

Ignoring the pain in her head, she felt either side of the wall and found that it fell to the right. She carefully carried her arm to her other side, to gauge how much room she had to work with. When her arm was fully extended to her right, she found another wall. _An alley._

Not wasting another second, Katsu made her way down the alley towards the cries and piano melody. _They should be at the end of the alley..._ Katsu surmised. _Wait..._ Along with the two sounds, there was another, more faint sound. She had to strain to hear a low steady ticking. _Could that be another Exorcist? They haven't activated their Innocence yet if they are. The sound is so faint._

Robotic laughter filled the alley and judging by the distance, Katsu had reached the akuma.

"Let the woman go, akuma."

Katsu instantly recognized Allen's voice, and also the source of the sad piano song. _Of course, I hadn't heard Allen's Innocence before. Not the Innocence we're looking for._

However, Katsu could hear the ticking coming from her left. Did someone leave a clock in the alley?

Katsu didn't dwell on the idea as the akuma laughed, the sound turning towards Allen. As it did so, there was a woman joyfully crying as footsteps faded away.

"Wait!" Allen called. In his moment of distraction, the sound of the akuma readying a gun could be heard.

Katsu knew this was the time to take out the akuma. She activated her Innocence silently, feeling the warm water sensation flow over her body. Once she was completely covered, she focused her attention on her wrists, and in seconds a pair of shuriken solidified from her wrists. _Let's see what my Innocence can do now._

With great precision and the help of the narrow alley way, Katsu threw her shuriken at the akuma. With a sharp _shing_ sound, the shuriken made four distinct thunks. Katsu grinned. They had multiplied in the air.

The explosion that followed was brief, slightly loud and was immediately after the one the akuma produced in Allen's direction. There was a moment of silence before Allen's war cry could be heard. The piano melody shifted slightly, warning Katsu of an oncoming ally attack onto her person. She threw her arm out in front of herself, the impermeable arm blocking Allen's attack.

"Is that any way you treat a comrade that just saved you arse?" Katsu snapped.

"Sorry," Allen apologised, retracting his arm. "Uh...K-Katsu, why are your eyes...red?" Allen's voice rang out, slightly disconcerted. Katsu could feel his wary gaze on her face.

Slowly, Katsu began to be able to see again as she answered Allen's question. She sighed irritably as she answered. "I don't know. It happens periodically."

"You can't see when they're red, can you?" Katsu's gaze focused on Allen. How did he know this? "You weren't looking at me when the conversation started. Nor did you recognize the fact that the akuma was holding a person hostage. You could have harmed her."

Katsu snorted. "Please, the explosions are the parts people should be worried about."

"Though I am curious to know how you knew where the akuma was if you couldn't see it."

"Same way I knew you were here in the first place."

"You heard it speak?"

Katsu rolled her eyes. She should have expected this answer. "No. I can hear akuma. I can tell what level they are too."

Allen's eyebrows furrowed. "How did you know I was here then?"

"I have to have some way to know where my fellow Exorcists are." Katsu paused waiting for the eureka moment. It didn't come. She expanded, "I can also hear Innocence, among a couple other things. Now, I think it might be a good time to try and reconnect with Lenalee. See if she has anything to add to what I've found out."

"I think that woman who ran away might be a good person to ask as well. She seemed a little bit different to the rest of the people in the town," Allen added.

Katsu nodded, deactivating her Innocence. "Let's go to that pub then. I'm starved." They began to walk in the direction of their rendezvous spot. "I'm going to order everything I could possibly eat. Just think if we stay overnight, which we probably will, we won't need to pay. The bar man won't remember the next day if they're continuously repeating the same day." Katsu smiled at the thought of endless amounts of food and sugar.

"Isn't that stealing?" Allen asked, while trying to inconspicuously look at the people around him.

"Who cares? We might as well use this horrendous situation to our own advantage." Katsu watched him from the corner of her eye. He looked way too innocent. He couldn't be that innocent and naive, it just wasn't possible. The minute your eyes were opened to the real world all nativity disappears. Katsu snapped her head forward again. Just another reason to hate her _twin_.

Lenalee wasn't in the pub when they arrived so Allen and Katsu took it upon themselves to order some lunch while they waited for her. The waiter had been initially dumbfounded by the shear amount of food they ordered, but under the assurance they would pay for everything, even if they didn't eat it (they weren't paying for it any way, but the waiter didn't have to know that) the waiter took their order to the kitchen.

While they waited, Allen took a napkin, and a pencil borrowed from the waiter and was-attempting-to draw a picture. This was about the time Lenalee walked into the pub. She found them swiftly, sitting across from the two. Katsu had put up a mini fight when Allen decided to sit next to her. She had tried to hit him, push him off the booth but he remained stubborn until Katsu just gave up.

Allen looked up from his chicken scratch as Lenalee sat down. "Hello Lenalee! Did you find anything?"

_How is he so cheery?_ Katsu thought, staring at him with an annoyed disbelief.

Lenalee nodded. "I took the time to test out Nii-san's theory of whether we're stuck here or not. It turns out we are. I made a hole in the wall and walked through it but I arrived at the same spot I had started at in the city. What about you guys?"

"We're definitely working with Innocence." Katsu announced, monotone. "Defeated an akuma. Apparently it was terrorising a woman. They wouldn't terrorise anyone without reason. They'd just kill 'em. Not to mention, I could hear something strange in the town."

"Strange?" Lenalee asked. She knew that Katsu was referring to one of her blind moments.

"It sounded like a ticking clock. But it was faint, as if it had found an accommodator that had yet to activate it yet. But I've never run into an Innocence that didn't resemble a song."

"Well at least we can continue our search with the assurance that we're working with Innocence and that we're going to have to be prepared to fight off some akuma," Lenalee said.

"I think I may have found a good lead," Allen piped up. "When Katsu killed the akuma, the woman it had been terrorising appeared to be unaffected by the town repeating. If we could find her again, we could ask her some questions."

"That's all fine and dandy, but you're the only one that knows what she looks like." Katsu muttered, resting her head against a closed fist that was supported by the table.

"That's why I drew a portrait!" He held up the chicken scratch.

"Uh...Allen, no offense, but no one can understand that drawing," Lenalee pointed out hesitantly.

"And that's putting it nicely," Katsu added.

Allen frowned, putting the picture he had been so proud of on the table.

The food arrived then, taking several waiters to carry and multiple trips. By the time all the food was on the table, every square inch of the table was covered by food and plates. Lenalee stared wide eyed at their orders.

"It still amazes me how much parasitic types can eat. How are you guys planning to pay for all that? You know we don't get paid much."

Katsu tapped her nose. "Don't worry, I've got it covered."

Allen shook his head but didn't argue.

Within minutes, the two of them had cleared off all their plates, leaving Lenalee with her eyes about to bug out of her head. "Did you even breathe in between plates? Did you taste it at all?"

Katsu shook her head smiling. "Of course not. We don't have time to spend breathing when we have to get to work searching for a mystery woman."

Lenalee shook her head exasperated.

They sat in silence for a moment, as Allen continued to lick his fork, as if wishing he had more food to eat. He glanced up at Lenalee, when his attention was drawn just to the side of her, where he saw a shadow leering over her shoulder. His first reaction was to drop the fork that was resting in his mouth before jumping up and pointing at the shadow with an exclamation.

"It's you! This is the person I was telling you guys about!"

The woman cried out in alarm, looking much like a startled rabbit. Within seconds, she was attempting to leap out the nearest window. It was only due to Katsu's quick reflexes that she managed to grab on to the woman's arm before she ran away.

"Please excuse that idiot. His manners seem to be lacking at the moment." She said. "We just want to talk to you. We're Exorcists."

"Exorcists?"

Katsu nodded. "Yes. Though why did you feel the need to run through the window?"

"I-It's just an instinctual reaction," The woman stuttered.

"Then why don't you come inside so we can talk," Lenalee suggested, in a calm voice, not wanting to startle the woman further.

After a moment's pause, the woman nodded. She decided it was better to re-enter the pub, via the door.

She sat down beside Lenalee. Lenalee introduced the three of them.

The woman smiled insecurely as she introduced herself. "I'm Miranda Lotto. I'm so glad to see that there are other people that are unaffected by this town's anomaly. I tried telling other people, but they only made fun of me." Miranda's eyes teared up. "I seriously contemplated suicide at that time."

Lenalee and Allen sweat dropped while Katsu looked on at the woman in understanding. While she couldn't relate to such petty situations, she most certainly understood the pain of no longer thinking life could be worth living.

"You got to help me!" Miranda cried, her tears falling freely down her cheeks. She leaned over the table in Allen's and Katsu's direction, eyes wide. "I don't know how much more of this I can take! You two helped me when you defeated that monster. Please help me now!"

Allen raised his hands, trying to calm the woman down. "Don't worry Miranda, we'll find the reason to this."

"Something must have happened on the real October 9th, can you remember anything in particular?" Katsu asked, drawing circles on the table with her finger. Any possible connections she could have had with this woman flew out the window once she started in her hysterics.

Miranda turned her attention onto Katsu when Katsu noticed her vision beginning to wane. Katsu sighed but Miranda blew it out of proportion.

"Your eyes are red! Why did you eyes turn red?"

Katsu tried to ignore the woman's screeching, and it was an easy task with the pain filled cries filling the pub. Four of them to be exact.

"We aren't the only ones who appear to have noticed Ms. Miranda is different." Allen muttered. Katsu heard a shuffled noise to her side, indicating Allen had stood.

"Allen, is that what your eye looks like when it's activated?" Lenalee asked, completely ignoring Allen's previous statement.

"Yes, I can see four akuma sitting at the bar."

"You better watch out." Katsu muttered boredly continuing her circle drawing, though the circles were becoming more wobbly. "They're all level twos."

Katsu could feel Allen's hard stare on the side of her face. "How can you tell?"

"How can you tell that there are akuma in here? You see them. I can hear them. I thought I told you this. Now, don't ask more questions unless you feel like being blown apart." She stood leisurely. "Lenalee, I think now would be a good time to take Miranda away from here with your dark boots. Allen and I will take care of the akuma."

"Alright. Ms. Miranda, will you please take my hand?" Miranda sniffled, but must have complied for there was a soft whoosh and the sound of Lenalee's violin melody grew softer, along with the mysterious ticking.

"Bet'cha I can get more than you. With both eyes closed," Katsu taunted, making her way out from behind her booth, activating her Innocence as she did so.

"I really don't think now is the right time to be placing a bet," Allen countered slightly disapprovingly.

Katsu frowned, "Note to self, Allen is no fun as well." She focused her eyes in the general direction of Allen's sad piano melody. "At the very least try not to hurt yourself. I'd rather not have to come save your butt."

With those parting words, Katsu jumped into the center of the pub, envisioning the layout of the building in her mind. She threw shuriken in the direction of the crying. They didn't seem to hit anything except for the wall, which was doing little good for their predicament.

Katsu could also make out the sounds of a gun firing and figured that had to be Allen's Innocence in action.

Katsu ducked when sensed an akuma lashing out at her. She felt the hairs on the top of her head stir as she just barely missed a strike to the head.

All her movements seized, however, when she heard the most agonizingly high pitched screech fill the open air. What would have normally been a head splitting sound was amplified in her sensitive ears. Katsu couldn't hold back the scream of pain as the sound continued to ricochet around inside her head. It was as if the mere vibrations were trying to liquefy her brain.

Katsu's limbs gave out on her and she collapsed to the ground, body shaking in pain.

The noise stopped, much to her relief. She didn't get a moment to pause however. The next attack was sent her way, but because of her body and senses' weakened state, Katsu couldn't react quick enough. It was only thanks to a pair of arms grabbing her around her middle that she just barely missed the explosion that rang out from her previous position.

"Katsu, are you ok-" Allen never finished his sentence before he cried out in alarm, as he dragged Katsu's body out harm's way again.

He wasn't quick enough. Katsu felt her feet burn. They burned hotter than any flame she had ever felt before. Her entire face contorted in pain as she tried to avoid showing anymore weakness. A strangled cry still managed to claw its way up her throat.

"Ice fire," The akuma proclaimed proudly. "Hotter than any flame. Even just a small amount will start to corrode your flesh. I'm going to burn you to ashes."

"No, let's tear them to pieces with my ability!" A second argued.

"No, no, no. Let's make their brains explode with my ability. I much liked the black skinned boy's reaction to my power. I want to do it again." A third pitched in, cackling gleefully.

There was a pause, as if the akuma realized they had reached a fork in the road. Instantly they began to bicker amongst themselves. Katsu could make out, "Rock, Paper, Scissors."

Allen took this moment to check on Katsu. "Katsu, are you alright? Can you still fight?"

Katsu's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. "Of course I can still fight." She pushed herself to her feet unsteadily. She wobbled and Allen caught her. "As long as I'm conscious, I will fight." She shook off Allen's hands. "Don't let this chance go to waste. Help me attack the akuma."

Katsu readied her shuriken, trying to ignore her shaking hands. Not waiting to see if Allen was ready, she threw them, hearing the shing, of them separating.

A machine gun like sound rang out afterwards, signaling Allen's attack as well.

"What the hell are you doing?" The third akuma exclaimed. "You cheater! You don't attack people while they're playing rock, paper, scissors!"

"I'm sorry," Katsu apologised, with a sweet voice that was coated in cyanide. "I wasn't aware there were rules to this game."

"You couldn't truly believe we'd wait for you to finish," Allen added, exasperated.

"We'll kill you Exorcists!" The akuma yelled out together.

"Wait!"

The unfamiliar voice rang out. Katsu shivered as the silence was filled with a sinister, unending laugh. She could feel her body tense as it tried to go into survival mode. Her fingers and limbs twitched uncontrollably. _I-It couldn't be._

"It looks like you guys are having fun, but aren't you forgetting something? You're supposed to be retrieving the Innocence." There was an impatient sigh. "Come back to me."

There was a large crash as various debris fell on top of the two of them. The silence that followed was deafening. Even though Katsu began to regain her vision again and the evil laugh was fading, she couldn't stop her body shaking, or her mind resurfacing horrible, despicable memories.

Around her Katsu could see the various pieces of the now ruined pub, scattered around them. There was also a fairly strong breeze. With a quick glance up, Katsu could see a large hole in the ceiling in which she assumed the akuma retreated from.

_Thank goodness that by tomorrow, the bar tender would completely forget about them destroying his bar. I wonder if this town also fixes any destruction that happens to the town as well_, Katsu thought absently, in an attempt to distract her mind. It didn't work.

"Katsu, were you injured?" Allen gently began to search her body for any wounds.

That was the last straw, Allen's probing fingers. Katsu's mind was instantly transported away from the present. Instead of Allen's voice, she heard another, mocking voice that was always echoed by a second. She felt their hands instead of Allen's as they touched her body, injured her body instead of caring for its well being. All for the sake of a sick game. The sinister laughter danced in her ears, like some twisted background music.

She whimpered, and tears rolled freely down her face. "Stop it, please just stop."

Allen retracted his hands as if Katsu's skin burned him. Had she been injured? Did he aggravate that injury? What did he do to cause such a...weak and desperate plea?

Much to Allen's relief, Lenalee walked through the door then, looking around frantically. She found Allen and Katsu quickly, rushing to their side. "You guys made quite the mess..." She noticed Katsu's frantic state. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Allen replied helplessly. "I think she might be injured. She reacted this way when a voice rang out to order the akuma to retreat."

"A voice?" Lenalee asked.

Allen nodded.

Lenalee knelt down beside Katsu. From here she could see the girl shaking. Worry filled Lenalee. She had only seen Katsu like this a handful of times and never this severe. Usually it was in response to the nightmares she had when she was newly arrived at the Order.

She gently took Katsu's twitching hand and cradled it in both of hers. She tried to make the gesture feel as nonthreatening as possible. "Katsu," She whispered. "It's alright. You're alright. I'm here. Lenalee. And Allen is here too. The two of us won't let anything happen to you."

"L-Lenalee?" Katsu hiccupped, desperately trying to grasp onto the strand of light that was Lenalee in her bleak consciousness.

Lenalee smiled comfortingly down at Katsu, "Yes, I'm here."

Katsu's eyes refocused in the present, slowly seeing Lenalee's kind face smiling down at her. She grasped onto the hand that was holding hers once before retracting it and using it to push herself up into a standing position. Her eyes flickered to the second presence in the room, Allen before looking away again almost immediately. She couldn't deal with the feeling of looking in a mirror on top all her other jumbled emotions.

She wiped her damp cheeks as she spoke to Lenalee. "Is Miranda safe?"

Lenalee nodded. "Yes, I took her to her apartment and told her I'd return with you two."

"Well, we should get going then."

Allen stepped forward, hand raised signally Katsu to pause. "We can take a moment to rest. You look like you could use it."

"I'll rest when we get back to the Order. Right now, we're on a mission with a possible accommodator of Innocence. That is more important right now." Katsu felt her resolve growing with every word she spoke. She had to give it to Allen for riling her up again.

"If you're not in a good state to complete the mission or fight, you'll just be a liability," Allen tried to say slowly and in the least offending way possible.

It didn't seem to work, for it only angered Katsu. She stalked forwards until she was right in Allen's face. "I will fight for those who cannot until I am no longer breathing. I don't give a damn if I might not be in perfect condition. I will continue to fight until I can't." Allen met Katsu's gaze levelly and didn't respond. A fiery understanding seemed to flicker in his eyes.

Katsu spun to face Lenalee, wobbling slightly as she did as she felt the pain of her burns skyrocket up her legs. She smiled in an attempt to stop Lenalee from worrying about her. She motioned towards the door instead. "Lead the way."

Lenalee frowned, noticing Katsu's forced smile. "You're injured."

Katsu shook her head roughly. "I'm fine, Miranda is the most important person to be worried about at the moment."

Lenalee gave Katsu a look clearly stating they weren't going to argue about this. "She'll be fine for the few minutes that I treat your wounds."

Grumbling, Katsu gently lowered herself to the ground. She rolled up her pants, revealing two large burns on her shins.

Lenalee ran into the back of the pub to grab a cloth and rinse it with water. It wasn't the best, but it would have to do for now. She rushed back, immediately bending down beside Katsu to dab at the wounds.

Once Lenalee was content with the state of Katsu's wounds, she let the girl stand up again and led the way to Miranda's apartment.

On the way, Lenalee asked something that was on her mind ever since the beginning of the attack. "Allen, how long has your eye been cursed?"

Surprised at the nature of the question, Allen looked at Lenalee with a sense of shock. He frowned once the question settled in his mind. He still answered though, "Ever since I was little. Before I became Cross' apprentice. Three years, roughly." Allen's expression grew darker still when he mentioned Cross. "Why do you ask?" He muttered spitefully, though the spitefulness seemed to originate more from the memory than the conversation.

Katsu observed Allen's reaction with a sense of curiosity, one that she was surprised to find wasn't accompanied with anger. Was it possible that his past was almost as bad as hers? Katsu shook her head. She doubted it. Kanda was the only one in the Order whose past could compete against hers. It was why she had befriended him so quickly, and him her. Not to mention she was the only one in the Order not somehow mentally insane and drove Kanda up the wall, with the exception of Lenalee.

"Oh, I just noticed that Katsu went blind almost simultaneously with your eye. I guess it wouldn't be such a far cry to assume this is simply another way you guys are connected."

Katsu frowned, that was the last thing she wanted to hear. That she had another damn connection with her stupid twin. Katsu pinched her nose. At least she potentially knew why she had never been able to call upon her sensitive ears when she wanted.

As if sensing her foul mood, Allen's eyes drifted over to Katsu where she was pointedly avoiding his.

Lenalee announced that they had arrived at Miranda's building, silently leading the way up the stairs to the appropriate room. Once there, they met up with Miranda. She unlocked the door for them, letting them in. Once she closed the door behind them, she immediately went over to sit beside a large grandfather clock. She began to obsessively clean it.

"Ms. Miranda, we thought it would be best if we told you what the monsters you saw earlier were and why they're here," Allen began softly, not wanting to startle the traumatized woman.

"And you can tell Allen and Katsu what you told me earlier," Lenalee added, smiling encouragingly at Miranda, even though her back was turned to them.

Miranda nodded her head slowly, allowing the three Exorcists to explain.

Once they were finished, there was a moment of silence before Miranda launched into her story of how she'd always felt useless, so once she found the clock that hadn't responded to anybody but her, she felt accepted. It became her most prized possession.

Katsu stood abruptly as all the pieces connected in her head. The unresponsive clock, Miranda starting it, the soft ticking that she kept hearing near Miranda, it all made sense. It was hard to believe there was any other answer.

Startled, Allen and Lenalee looked up at Katsu.

"Are you alright?" Allen asked.

Katsu glared at him, "I'm fine." Her eyes drifted back to Miranda. "I think we have a new accommodator on our hands."

"You think the clock is the Innocence that was causing the ticking," Lenalee stated, having seen where Katsu's thought process was. "And it responded to Miranda."

Miranda turned her head frantically to face the three Exorcists, her one hand still rubbing the clock lovingly. "No, no, no. I never asked for any of this. I'm not special. I'm not strong like you guys, I couldn't be!" Miranda cried.

"M-Miranda..." Allen started, trying to approach Miranda slowly to calm her down. It only seemed to make it worse.

Her face became frantic as she cried out, "You guys are the special ones with amazing powers! Not me, you have to help me stop this!"

"We will help you," Allen said slowly. "But we need your help as well."

Miranda's expression immediately softened as she looked at Allen disbelievingly. "You need my help?"

"Obviously," Katsu muttered, "You're the Innocence's accommodator." She refrained from saying it loud enough for Miranda to hear knowing it would be too much for her easily worked up personality.

Miranda stared back at Allen's kind eyes, about to answer when a loud gong filled the room. It almost sounded loud enough to have been able to echo throughout the whole town.

As if that one noise was the indicator she needed, Miranda stood, eyes blank and walked over to her bed. The three Exorcists watched in amazement as Miranda instantly fell asleep.

"How does she do that? I'd love to be able to fall asleep that quickly," Katsu muttered.

Allen viewed the predicament differently, however. "How can you just fall asleep like that?" He exclaimed, truly confused. "You were about to help us!"

Lenalee gently touched each twin's arm, her attention drawn to the clock and the room around it. "Guys, look around us."

Following suit, the two silverette's glanced at their surroundings, a unified look of shock decorating their faces. Covering every possible surface was a different shaped clock. Some were in the shape of hearts, squares, flowers, stars...Katsu even swore she saw one in the shape of a cat.

It didn't stop there. The hands on the clock then started to spin unusually fast, backwards. With it, it was sucking in the different shaped clocks.

_It must be taking back today's time_, Katsu surmised.

"Alright, this definitely isn't normal. This is without a doubt Innocence," Katsu claimed. "Though it seems we're going to have to wait for Miranda to wake up again before we try and fix this. To get her to stop that stupid clock."

Once the hands stopped spinning and all the clocks had been sucked into the grandfather clock, sun shined through Miranda's open windows.

Shell shocked, the Exorcists hardly noticed Miranda re-awakening.

"Huh, when did I go to bed?"

Katsu sweat dropped. "Can we just get to the point?"

"Right, Miranda, we're sure that you clock is Innocence. Can you think of any emotional trauma you went through on the first October 9th that might have caused it to activate like this?" Lenalee asked.

Miranda's eyes unfocused as she remembered back to the first October 9th. "Well, it was the day that I was fired for the hundredth time..."

Katsu had to hide her shock. It was possible for someone to get fired a hundred times?

"I felt as anyone would have for the number of times they've been fired to go into the triple digits. I was leaning against my dear clock, drinking, not really caring about life. And I had wished that tomorrow would never come." Miranda finished.

"That's it!" Allen exclaimed. "The Innocence granted you wish!"

"Perhaps if Miranda got a job that she didn't get fired from the Innocence would take the wish back," Katsu suggested. She glanced over to Allen and Lenalee. "You guys have any ideas?"

"This might take some time..."

**Feel free to review. :)**


	6. Chapter 6

A couple days later, the three Exorcists found another job for Miranda to participate in, with Allen's help. It had only been due to Allen's persuasive comments to the employer that Miranda had even got the chance to try for the position. Apparently, he had already hired and fired Miranda more than once and wasn't looking to get anywhere near her again. Allen had to convince the circus director that she would only be selling tickets; he would be the one performing the act, as to not injure Miranda-or any of the innocent people who happen to be caught in the way.

That was where the two were the next day, Allen with a large pumpkin on his head as he juggled multiple balls and balanced on a large one while Miranda was dressed as a witch, handing out tickets to the little children.

Lenalee and Katsu waited for the other two to get there break, leaning against a building's stone wall.

"Allen's really good at juggling," Lenalee commented, watching him closely.

Katsu hummed non-committing, keeping her eyes focused on Miranda instead. She could care less about Allen at the moment; Miranda should be the one they should be caring about. She was the one who had to land this job. It was the only way they would be able to get her confidence up enough to get the Innocence to stop rewinding the town and let them leave.

"Miranda's not doing too bad either," Katsu added after a moment, trying to remind Lenalee of the reason they were doing this in the first place.

Lenalee smiled, nodding her head in agreement. "She looks like she's really enjoying it. It makes me happy, seeing Miranda so happy. She's had too many bad things happen to her."

Katsu's throat clenched painfully once, as she recognized Lenalee's words. "You said that about me once too," Katsu whispered, remembering the day that Lenalee had approached her. She had only been in the Order for a month or so, and Katsu had just returned from her first mission with Kanda, overjoyed with her success. Lenalee had rushed over to her, engulfing her in a hug, muttering those words, "It makes me happy Katsu, to see that you're finally happy here too."

Katsu shook her head, forcing the memory out of her mind. She needed to focus on the mission at hand. She wasn't going to allow it to be a failure.

"And they remain true to this day." Lenalee's eyes fell onto Katsu. The dark, loving orbs expressing all the affection she held for the girl in front of her.

Katsu looked away, unable to handle such strong emotions in her friend's eyes.

"Every time you or anyone I care about is sad, I'm equally devastated." Lenalee looked back over to Allen and Miranda. "That applies to Allen and Miranda as well."

Katsu followed Lenalee's gaze, once again watching Allen balance on the ball. She understood where Lenalee was coming from, heck she agreed with Lenalee that it always hurt to see a comrade get injured, but even that had limitations. She could only care so much. It wasn't that she didn't want to care more, she just...couldn't. She was proud that she came so far in her capability to care in the last couple years.

"Do you still hate Allen, Katsu? Even after knowing him for a couple months now?" Lenalee asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Katsu responded without a moment's hesitation. "You don't understand the pain he's put me through, Lenalee. You can't even begin to understand."

Lenalee pursed her lips. "You're right, I don't. But I do know that Allen isn't the type of person who would do that intentionally. You saw him after he found out that his injuries had been transferred to you. You saw how he tried to make it up to you, apologized to you. I would bet he's even trying to find a way to control it, or at the very least prevent it."

Katsu shook her head. "I can't. I can't forget it. My whole life...it would have been so much simpler, maybe ended up differently..." Katsu sank to the ground, grasping her head. Lenalee just watched her friend, understanding the feeling of all the 'what if's going through her head. "Even my own Innocence betrays me and reacts to him. I can't..."

Lenalee crouched down, resting a comforting hand on her friends shoulder. "Can you try? Little steps. Maybe stop avoiding him at the Order to start. Then when you're comfortable, make small talk."

Katsu didn't answer, hiding her face in her hands.

"Hey, Lenalee, Katsu!" Allen called, waving over to the two girls. "We have a break now!"

Lenalee nodded, calling back, "We'll be right there!" She turned to Katsu, "C'mon, let's go see how the others are doing and leave this depressing conversation for later," Lenalee joked, offering her hand to Katsu.

Katsu looked up from her hands. She seemed to pull herself together; any trace of confusion and panic left her expression as she confidently took Lenalee's outstretched hand.

Side by side the two female Exorcists made their way over to where Allen was resting.

"Where's Miranda?" Lenalee asked, once they were close enough.

"She decided to keep working, to put up a good image." Even through the pumpkin head, the two could tell Allen was smiling. "I really think we have a good chance with this one. The ring master even told us if we kept up the good work, we'd have a permanent job."

Lenalee smiled brightly, "That's great!"

"Keeping the job will be the real challenge," Katsu muttered. Lenalee roughly elbowed her in the side.

"Stop being so grumpy today."

"Sorry, I'm not in the right mood at the moment, but I think you would find it understandable," Katsu glared pointedly at Lenalee.

Lenalee sighed.

"What's the matter?" Allen asked, sounding as confused as he probably looked.

"Katsu's just in a bad mood today. It's great that Miranda might actually get this job." Lenalee smiled a little forcefully, as she changed the subject. "You were really skilled balancing on that ball Allen."

"Thanks. When I was a kid, I used to be in the circus with my foster father."

"That must have been so cool, to be able to visit so many different countries," Lenalee gushed.

"It sounds nice, but we had a hard time just getting by. What about you Lenalee? How did you come to the Order?" Allen pulled his knees to his chest, leaning forward in interest.

"Oh, I've been in the Order for as long as I can remember. Mine and Komui's parents died when I was young. Not long after, the Order picked me up since I was an accommodator for the dark boots. I was alone, and without my brother, who was my only living relative, for three years. But then Komui joined the Order for my sake and became the science division supervisor." Lenalee explained.

As Katsu listened, she felt the tickle of a little green monster. How could Lenalee talk about her past so easily, like nothing bad happened? Even when she had told her the whole story, Katsu noticed how the girl barely batted an eye. How could the dark side of the Order not still hurt her?

"What about you, Katsu?" Allen asked, snapping Katsu out of her thoughts. Lenalee winced when Allen asked the question. Expecting Katsu to blow up, in light of their recent conversation.

"General Tiedoll brought me to the Order," Katsu answered in a clipped tone. It took all of her will not to think of the conditions the fatherly man had found her, or how cruelly she had treated him. The man truly hadn't deserved it.

Allen, realizing that Katsu wasn't in the mood to elaborate didn't press further. He actually felt pretty lucky that Katsu shared any information with him at all.

The trio sat in silence for a moment longer, waiting for Allen's potential boss to call him back to work when a short blue haired girl approached them, a lollipop in her mouth.

"Hey, where can I get ticket for the pumpkin and the witch?" The girl demanded, taking a long lick from her candy.

Allen, the ever enthusiastic worker, rushed over to the girl's side, dragging her back the way she came. "Right this way!" He turned back to the other two briefly to wave.

Katsu sighed once Allen was out of sight, "Are you happy?" Katsu grumbled. "I was nicer."

Lenalee smiled sadly. "I don't want you to force yourself to be nicer to him because of me. I want you to do so to be able to understand the bond between siblings."

Katsu huffed again rolling her eyes.

"You idiot!" A man yelled. Katsu and Lenalee's heads snapped up when the recognized the sound of the ring leader's voice.

"Miranda...no..."Katsu whispered dejectedly standing up to follow the action. As they turned around the corner, they were faced with a crying Miranda on the ground with Allen crouching before her, trying to comfort her. The ring leader was standing above them, glaring down at Miranda.

"I'm so sorry," Miranda sobbed, "While I was dealing with another customer, he just..."

"It's okay," Allen comforted, "What did he look like?"

"He had a brown top and slightly long hair. He ran in that direction." She pointed to her right.

Lenalee turned to Katsu, "Keep an eye on Miranda." She immediately dashed off in the direction that Miranda had pointed, jumping onto the roof to gain better access to the ground below her.

Allen ran after her, taking the ground.

Katsu walked over to Miranda and knelt down next to her. She offered the poor woman her hand.

Miranda smiled taking it.

When Katsu took another look around her surroundings, to see if there was a threat, or by chance, the thief, she noticed with a shiver that they were all alone, save for the blue haired girl.

She stood a good distance away, leaning in their direction as she sucked on her lollipop. Her dark eyes were wide as they remained focused on them.

"I was expecting you to go with them," The girl said, eyes focused on Katsu. "You're the cursed one aren't you? I've heard stories about you from the Earl." She giggled childishly. "Though, I was expecting your scar to look more rugged."

Katsu blinked in shock once she realized this girl was mistaking her for Allen. It was a strange feeling, even though she didn't have long to ponder on it. She had never been mistaken for someone else. For looking like a boy, yes. She even preferred it that way, but for someone else entirely, Katsu wasn't too sure she liked the feeling.

Coming back to herself, Katsu glared. "What do you want?"

The girl smiled sweetly, though it only made Katsu want to puke. "The Innocence of course."

Katsu snarled, "Never." She pushed Miranda behind her. She didn't know what was up with this girl, but Katsu wasn't getting a good feeling in the pit of her stomach.

In the middle of pulling Miranda behind her, everything went dark once again like a flick of a switch. Katsu mentally swore. The thief was an akuma, either that or Allen and Lenalee just ran into one.

Katsu's attention didn't remain on that thought long when she caught wind of the laughter. The evil, sinister, 'made her want to crawl up in a ball and pray for death' laughter. It was caught in the melody of a higher pitch, more gleeful one.

"Oh, how could I have made such a mistake? Of course you're not Allen, but I've heard many more stories about the one whose eyes turn red." The girl clapped her hands gleefully.

Katsu's entire body tensed. She couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't _breathe_.

Miranda shook her lightly, soft sobs make their way past her mouth. "K-Katsu? Are you okay?"Katsu couldn't respond, even though she knew she probably should, to reassure the easily scared woman behind her.

The girl giggled, "It looks like you haven't forgotten either."

Katsu shivered, and her mind was growing foggy. Had she still yet to breathe? She took in a deep breath. No, she just got plenty of oxygen, yet her mind continued to grow foggy and unclear until, ultimately, she collapsed.

Miranda shrieked, rushing to catch the falling body. "Katsu?" She called to the unconscious girl. The girl's head simply rolled to the side, unresponsive. Miranda curled around the white haired girl, sobbing. "I'm so useless! I can't even keep a thief from stealing money! Had I done that, none of this would have happened! Why did that Innocence clock choose me?" Miranda wailed.

The blue haired girl grinned. "Clock Innocence, you say?" A dark look cast a shadow over the girl's eyes. "Where is your Innocence?" She asked, couching down so she was eye to eye with Miranda.

Miranda trembled, holding the body in her arms tighter.

"Tell me where it is, and I'll be less inclined to hurt any of you."

Miranda's lips trembled as she fought to say nothing.

The girl frowned, glaring at Miranda. Miranda whimpered, holding onto Katsu, hoping it would lend her strength as she sat at the girl's mercy.

**Oooh, how does Road know Katsu? Heh. I felt like being evil by ending it there XD. Feel free to review. :)**


	7. Chapter 7

The first to come to was Allen. His senses returned to him slowly. First, he felt the searing pain in his left arm and the dull ache that seemed to consume his entire body. That was what struck him as odd first, closely followed by not so quiet sobs.

Miranda, Allen thought sluggishly.

"Al-Allen," She hiccupped.

Slowly, Allen opened his eyes, unsure of his surroundings. Just moments ago he had been fighting akuma. Was he still in town? Purple was the first colour that registered in his mind, followed by candles, and dolls.

Allen's eyes widened when he realized he was most definitely _not_ in town anymore and Miranda's hands were...stabbed to her clock. Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks as she looked to Allen helplessly.

He tried to situate himself, perhaps to move closer to comfort Miranda, when he realized that the pain in his left arm was hindering such movement. Glancing over, he saw multiple candle shaped daggers stuck through his arm and through the wall behind him. The thing that struck Allen as odd was that he was feeling remnants of pain. Had something happened to Katsu?

Panicking, Allen glanced around quickly for Lenalee and Katsu. Were they here too?

"What a beautiful doll," A girlish voice said, admiringly.

"Rhode-sama, why are you dressing up an Exorcist?" An akuma asked.

"Exorcist dolls are so rare to come by," Rhode answered, almost sounding dreamy.

Doll? Allen thought wildly. Does she have Lenalee and Katsu over there? He moved his head around, trying to get a better look behind her. He was unsuccessful. He had to wait for Rhode to turn around. When she did, Allen noticed it was Lenalee trapped in the chair, unresponsive. Horror ran through Allen. "Lenalee!"

Rhode smiled, "So your name is Lenalee," she said to Lenalee, rubbing against her against the unmoving Exorcist in an affectionate manner. "What a cute name." She turned to Allen, "I see you're awake. I wonder if your other friend is as well. What a shame it was that she passed out before we could have any real fun." Rhode pouted. "We'll just have to have all the fun now! Akuma! Bring in the other girl."

Allen panicked, what happened to Katsu?

Slowly, the akuma rolled out a long table that held Katsu's stretched out body on it. Her limbs were fastened to the table, and she appeared to be unconscious. From what Allen could see, she appeared unharmed.

"Why are you with the akuma?" Allen demanded. He activated his eye, seeing the souls of the three akuma around Rhode, but there wasn't a soul above Rhode.

"That's because I'm human. Can't humans be friends with akuma?" She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"But akuma were created by the Earl to kill humans," Allen countered.

"Are weapons not made by humans to destroy humans? The Millennium Count is my brother. Me and my other siblings are the chosen ones. You, Exorcists are the chosen ones of a false God." As Rhode spoke, seven cross like insignias appeared on her forehead and her skin grew darker until it was a greyish brown. "We are the true apostles of God, of Noah's Clan."

There was a moment of tense silence before a loud screeching ensued.

"Rhode-sama!" The pumpkin umbrella screeched, getting in Rhode's face. "You aren't supposed to tell that to outsiders~lero! First you take me out without permission and now you act against the Earl's plans~lero. He's going to give you a right telling off~lero."

"Millenie won't do that to me, Lero."

Allen was fuming. He didn't believe for a minute what Rhode saying, and he hated it even more that she had hurt his friends and sister.

Rhode smirked at him. "You don't believe I'm telling the truth." Slowly she crept towards him, dragging his own Exorcist uniform on the ground as the excess fabric draped off her slender frame. When she was standing directly in front of him, she knelt, embracing him in a hug.

Allen seethed. She felt human. It couldn't be right. Humans didn't work with akuma.

He desperately wanted to attack her. The only thing holding him back was the potential pain it would cause Katsu. He truly didn't want to give her another reason to hate him. But he was useless and open to an attack if he remained bound like this.

I'm sorry, Katsu, he thought as he began to put pressure against his arm. He pulled, straining against the pointy candle like daggers. Allen bit his lip, biting back a scream of pain. Why was it hurting so much? Was Katsu...?

Eventually it became too much for Allen to hold back. He let out a long cry of pain, as the points began to wedge free of the wall behind him. He was panting in relief when his arm was free, the candles falling to the floor with a clatter. Allen wanted to lift his arm to attack Rhode, but it simply hung lifeless by his side. It had taken all his strength simply to get it free.

"If you're the same as other humans, why would you...?"

"The same?" Rhode interrupted, sounding slightly angry and offended. Allen paused, waiting for some sort of angry outburst. Instead, she grabbed his Innocence arm. Allen tried to fight it but he was still struggling to gather enough strength. It left him helpless as she dragged it across her face.

Allen watched horrified as his claws deformed Rhode's face.

"We are _nothing _like you sub humans." Rhode's face began to repair its self almost immediately. "We inherited the gene of Noah, God's oldest apostle." Concluding her statement, she grabbed one of the candles that were on the ground and stabbed Allen in the left eye.

There was a moment of silence before twin voices cried out in unimaginable pain.

Rhode pulled the candle away almost immediately, bringing it towards her face as she grinned down at Allen who was desperately holding his burning eye. Her tongue daintily brushed along the candle, licking the blood like it was a lollipop. She held Allen's angry, pain filled gaze for a moment longer before turning around to the girl she had tied up on a table.

"Did our friend finally waken from her slumber?" Rhode walked towards the bound girl intrigued. She had heard many stories about this one, even more than about the one with the cursed eye. Rhode felt lucky that she managed to run into both on the same day and gain the chance to play with them as well. She leaned over Katsu's body, happily intrigued when she saw the girl was bleeding tears, both eyes blood red. Her body was tense and fists clenched.

"Are you awake yet?"

"Did you do that as a wakeup call?" Katsu demanded, her voice unwavering.

Rhode smiled. "No, I didn't think of that. I was just having some fun with Allen."

Katsu snorted. "Why would you do that? He's a boring bastard."

From somewhere that seemed far off from the two's conversation, there was an offended half-hearted cry from Allen.

Rhode kept a close eye on Katsu, a finger to her chin. She seemed much more confident than what she had heard and that wasn't much fun at all. Perhaps she needed to use more of her candles to make her reactions more fun. Besides, she was curious as to why she had been injured when she had stabbed Allen.

"So you're saying that I should play with you then, if Allen is so boring," Rhode grinned.

Katsu repressed a shudder. Why did her mouth have to decide to start running without asking her mind if what it was going to say was a good idea or not?

She struggled against her restraints. Damn, this was the last situation she wanted to be in, especially with her lack of sight. Damn Allen for not being able to control his eye around the akuma in the room. Oh how she had the _strong_ desire to be able to see right now. The laughter, always in the back of her mind was serving as an awful reminder, slowly pushing her self-conscience into full blown panic attack.

"Rhode! Don't do it!" Allen yelled, causing Katsu to tense. What was she doing...?

"I'll just take your silence as a confirmation then," Rhode giggled, as Katsu felt a long searing pain across her collar bone. She could feel the scar tissue tearing once again.

Katsu quickly tried to regain control of her scream, biting her lip until it began to bleed.

The laugh that came from Rhode's mouth then, greatly resembled the one in the back ground. Without another warning, Katsu felt Rhode cut through another scar, reopening the wound and the memory that was tied with it.

Even as Katsu fought to refrain from making a sound, tears fell from her cheeks freely, painting shimmering red paths along her cheeks. They were back. All those years perfecting the wall she had crafted to keep them out, was for nothing. It crumbled as Rhode began to trace the swirl patterns on her arms.

_"I'm so glad we ran into each other." A voice said gleefully as a second, higher in pitch echoed in its agreement. "Hai, Hai. So glad. Exorcists are so much fun."_

_Katsu slowly opened her blurry, tear filled eyes to be faced with a pair of twin faces just as different as they were alike. One looked fairly normal, with dark hair falling in his face, and dark eye make-up around one eye. The other had long blond hair held back with a headband that reminded Katsu of bug antenna. This one also had what appeared to be stitches covering his mouth, though it didn't prohibit his speaking ability in the slightest. When he chose to speak, that is._

_"I think we should play another game with the Exorcist. What do you think, Jasdero?" The dark haired one said, grinning down at Katsu's bound and weary form._

_"Play, play, play!" The blond-Jasdero-replied with vigor._

_"N-No," Katsu stuttered, barely able to gather the strength to make her voice work. "No games. I-I can't..."_

_"This one doesn't involve so much of your physical participation," The dark haired guy...Devit crooned. "We'll simply play with our toys."_

_"He he, toys. Our toys are the best."_

_Instantly Katsu was trying to open her mouth, to protest but before she could muster any sound, she was gagged. All Katsu could do now was be glad they were in a playful mood. She wasn't sure her body was in a condition that would allow her to survive one of their darker moods._

_Katsu wished she had the power to fight these bastards. But there wasn't much she could do anymore. They were barely feeding her, her body was weak and injured and they were much stronger than she was, even for being a small, barely past childhood, girl. She didn't even understand why they were referring to her as Exorcist. It had to be a part of a larger game they played. _

_"The game we're going to play today," Devit started, "is called..."_

_"Exorcist painting!" The two finished together._

_"We've always wanted to try being artists, you see," Devit explained._

_"Exorcists are the best canvases," Jasdero added, waving a rather pointed object in the air like it was a paint brush._

_Katsu's muscles spasmed in fear, as the blade drew closer to her skin._

"Katsu!"

That wasn't one of the twins' voices, Katsu noted. Her brain barely functioning through the pain.

"Ah, Ah, keep your distance, Allen."

That wasn't one of their voices either...

Rhode laughed. "You think you can kill me? Did it make you angry that I hurt Katsu?" Rhode mocked. "Why would you protect someone who is obviously resenting you? I saw it in the pub and at the carnival tent."

"She's my sister. I protect those I care about," Allen growled.

"How can you? All you do is hurt her? I don't know all the specifics, but if my stabbing you in the eye was anything to go by, I'd say you're hurting her more than protecting her. You should let me put her out of her misery."

A loud shot rang out. Katsu felt something warm and bright fly past her face. This sense of immediate danger managed to fully pull her out of the recesses of her mind, if only for a moment.

"You might want to be careful Allen. You almost hit your sister," Rhode mocked.

There was a snarl before another shot.

"You can't kill me, Allen." Other loud noises rang out throughout the room, before it ended with a grunt and a thunk as a body hit a wall. "Are three akuma too much for you?"

Katsu struggled against her bonds before gasping. Each and every limb felt as if it were on fire. How much did Rhode cut her up while she was out of it? Was she even in any condition to be an aid to Allen if she could get these damn bonds undone?

"It's about time I got rid of you too," Rhode muttered.

Whimpering came from in front of Katsu, in the direction her feet were pointing. She recognized that sobbing...Miranda. Miranda was in danger. Katsu struggled against her bonds. Rhode had already done who the hell knows what to Allen and she had no idea where Lenalee was. The best she could do was help Miranda. She couldn't fail in another mission to retrieve Innocence.

"Ah, ah, ah. Don't think I forgot about you, Katsu..." Rhode warned, a sharp object pressing against Katsu's cheek, where she had her cross. "Perhaps you didn't spend enough time Jasdero..."

No, they weren't here, were they? Katsu wouldn't survive a second encounter with them, she wasn't ready. Besides, she needed to save Miranda.

The darkness that was encompassing Katsu's vision faded, as she was swallowed into the vision of her mind's eye.

Allen watched Katsu from his place on the ground in fear. What did Road do to Katsu? Who was Jasdero? Regardless of that, Allen was in incredible pain. Not only did he feel the ache in his arm, but he also felt the pain from being smashed into the wall, causing his limbs to burn in several places. He couldn't remember the last time he felt pain like this. Why now?

Rhode turned away from Katsu suddenly, facing Miranda once again. "Now to get rid of you so I can play with Allen freely." She raised her hand, pointing it in Miranda's direction. Instantly, the candles that were hovering around Rhode's head sharpened and turned in Miranda's direction.

Miranda was unable to look away from her imminent death, her eyes wide, taking in every aspect of the pointy objects that were going to end her miserable life.

Allen acted quickly, ignoring the pain in an instantaneous reaction. He rushed to Miranda's side, arm still activated. He slid behind her, and lifted his silver arm to protect the both of them. The candles were already flying by the time Allen raised his arm, barely missing getting hit by the deadly points.

He shook the candles that got wedged in his arm free and used his other hand to pull the Miranda's hands free from her clock. The moment she was free, Miranda rushed to the other side of the room, in the direction that Allen had come from.

Allen couldn't be bothered to raise his head as his arm slumped to the ground. All his strength left him, and his limbs fell beside him limply, feeling numb. His hair fell in his eyes as he managed to raise them to look up at Katsu.

She was still bleeding in a dangerous amount, and her muscles were tense. Allen could barely make out her chest raising and falling quickly and her neck strained back as if she was holding back a scream.

Allen felt ashamed. Did he hurt her? Was his pain still being transferred to her now, even as he was feeling it himself? Was he forcing her body to try and cope with his pain as well as her own?

"A-Allen..." Miranda called, her voice hoarse. "Allen...d-don't die."

Allen lifted his eyes in Miranda's direction, and he tried to smile reassuringly at her. He didn't need to worry her with his worries for Katsu. They were his to deal with alone, since he was the only one causing her pain.

"It's...it's alright." He forced his smile wider. "I'm fine." Allen struggled to keep the lie strong on his lips. His body was weak, and his strength was fading. He could barely lift his finger, let alone anything else. But he couldn't let Miranda know that, he had to be strong, protect Miranda and continue to walk, until he stopped breathing.

Rhode laughed. "Oh, you sub-humans are so amusing!" She narrowed her eyes at the woman who was crawling back to Allen. "What are you doing?

Allen heard Miranda sob and a pair of arms wrapped around his frame. What...?

"What am I doing?" Miranda responded, slightly hysterical. "What can I do, but try?" She pulled Allen's body gently, so his head could rest in her lap, eyes filling endlessly with tears.

A bright light shone through the darkness, suddenly blinding the few spectators, allowing Allen and Miranda to disappear from the Noah's view.

Allen, who had been barely holding onto his consciousness by a thread, was jolted with a moment of mental clarity when the blinding bright light broke into his line of sight. He promptly shut his eyes to get away from the painful light. After a moment, Allen slowly started to open them to the sight of a dome of light encasing them. Miranda's hair was free of its constraints and was flowing with some unknown wind.

He looked slightly behind Miranda, where the clock caught his eye. Its hands were moving backwards like they had that first night in the Rewinding Town. The Innocence was activated.

"Miranda..." Allen was slightly surprised to find that his voice was stronger. With even more passing time, he could feel his body regain his strength. Even his body was losing its injuries as several clocks were lifted from his body.

"Allen, can you move?" Miranda asked.

Allen tried, slowly lifting himself in an upright position. Though it didn't cause him pain, he quickly searched himself for any sign of injury. He was also shocked to notice that he was now able to look out his left eye. He grinned up at Miranda happily. "You activated the Innocence Miranda! It responded with you again." Allen bowed his head, "Thank you."

Miranda grinned happily too, as more tears welled in her eyes.

Startled, Allen pulled back. "Is something wrong, Miranda?"

Miranda shook her head. "You thanked me. I was useful."

"You were. Thank you." Allen smiled.

He then focused his attention on the dome. Katsu and Lenalee were still on the other side of it, injured. He had to help them too. But he was sure he'd only have the moment of surprise to grab one of them before they would expect him to get the other. He couldn't just leave one of them injured and at the mercy of Rhode...

He would have to try his luck at getting both of them then.

Activating his newly healed arm, Allen tried to remember where Rhode had placed Katsu and Lenalee in relation to the clock. If he wasn't mistaken, Katsu was in front of him now, Lenalee slightly to the left.

Swiftly, Allen extended his left arm, in Katsu's direction. Startled cries of the akuma followed as they tried to dodge his arm. His claw brushed against a metal leg of the table and he instantly grabbed it, pulling it towards him. Soon, Katsu was in the lightened dome, still strapped to the table.

Not wanting to give the akuma any time to recover and try and protect Lenalee, he instantly attacked in her direction. However, they had been expecting it like he had guessed. He felt someone grab hold of his arm, pulling him out of the dome. Allen went flying. Gravity quickly pulled him back to earth as he smashed into the ground below. With a groan towards the initial pain, Allen rose, facing his attackers.

The akuma faced Allen, providing a barrier between him and both Lenalee and Miranda's Innocence. Rhode floated above the akuma, on the pumpkin umbrella.

"Did you make the right choice? Was Katsu truly the right person to save?" Rhode taunted. "If you ask me, she looked fine physically, after you disappeared. Though I'm not too sure about her mental state. Can the clock Innocence take back the mental trauma too? If not, you're on your own." Rhode rested her elbow on her knee, then her head on her hand.

Allen froze. Mental trauma? "What did you do to her Rhode?" Allen demanded, glaring up at the Noah.

"Nothing more than release what had been pent up in there already. I just helped her remember."

Allen snarled. Like hell she did.

No, he needed to focus. He had to get Lenalee to Miranda, and hope that what Rhode was telling him was nothing more than a lie to get him riled up.

"I'm not lying," Rhode said, as if she had read Allen's mind. "I heard all sorts of stories about her from my brothers. They kept saying she was the best toy. She's good, but I'd have to disagree with them. I find _you're_ the best Allen. And the fight hasn't even gotten started yet."


	8. Chapter 8

**Lavi finally makes an appearance guys! :D **

Allen somersaulted on the ground, in an attempt to dodge. He could feel the burning cold air breeze across his skin. He just missed it. Standing quickly, Allen panted as he tried to catch his breath. Fighting the three level two akuma on his own wasn't easy, and they weren't making it any easier on him. A couple good hits with the one akuma's brain screeching ability successfully slowed Allen down considerably.

Not wanting to waste a second, he raised his arm, pointing the gun at the three headed green one. If he could take this one out, he wouldn't have to worry about his head exploding. He managed to get a shot out before the other two fell in on him, causing him to retreat.

_Damn, I'm going to lose at this rate_, Allen thought. _Where is Katsu? Surely Rhode had to be lying. Katsu couldn't have mental trauma. _

But how well did Allen truly know her? Only for a couple months and for most of it, she had avoided him. If she didn't, she was insulting him, glaring or ignoring him. They never got the chance for some heart to heart sibling chat.

Rhode giggled. "You can't be slowing down yet, Allen. We only just started."

"Why don't you come down and fight me yourself then!" He shifted his arm into a claw, swiping it in the closest akuma. Unfortunately, it missed.

"I will if you beat them." Rhode continued to swing her legs back and forth.

Allen grunted. Swiping out at another akuma as he tried to position himself to reach Lenalee. The akuma caught on quickly enough for them to cut him off and attack with more vigor.

Damn these akuma...

Allen's limbs began moving slower and slower, and the akuma's attacks began to get closer and closer to hitting him. Even as he tried to force his limbs to move faster, they wouldn't respond.

_No, I have to continue fighting. I have to help Lenalee and protect Miranda and Katsu... I can't stop now._

The purple and grey akuma, swarmed into Allen's vision, raising its arms threateningly.

"Wind Sick-Eh?!" The akuma was cut off when multiple black shuriken protruded from the akuma's front, having gone entirely through the rest of it. "No!" It yelled, before exploding.

Allen looked on in shock, the events not registering in his tired mind.

"Looks like I'm just in time then, aren't I?"

Allen's head shot up as he watched a figure emerge from Miranda's dome. He quickly recognized the Exorcist costume and Katsu's familiar white hair. Though her eyes were glowing a vibrant red, a stark contrast to her blackened skin.

"Katsu, are you okay?"

Katsu scoffed. "Of course I am. Miranda's Innocence helped with that. Took a long time though." Katsu glared in Rhode's direction above her head. "You dare to call yourself human? You disgusting Noah."

Rhode was looking down on Katsu with interest. "So her Innocence does heal mental trauma as well. Interesting."

"It takes back time. Obviously it would take back what you did to me, you bitch."

Rhode was unaffected by Katsu's words, simply looking down on the Exorcist from her perch. "How long will it last I wonder. It can hardly be permanent."

Katsu raised her arm, shuriken in hand. "Doesn't matter, we'll kick your butt before then."

Rhode laughed, "Your confidence is amusing." Angered, Katsu threw the shuriken in warning. Rhode easily dodged. "What are you akuma doing? Attack!"

Katsu focused her attention on her brother. "Get Lenalee and regenerate. I'll hold them off."

Allen hesitated. He knew these akuma were a handful to fight on one's own. He couldn't just leave her alone. Though, there was one less akuma and Lenalee needed help.

Quick as lightening, Katsu struck out at the closest akuma, her arms flying in precise and practiced movements, catching the akuma off guard.

"Eh? What's this?"

"Not used to fighting hand to hand, huh? You'd think the Earl would warn his underlings of Exorcists who preferred to fight hand to hand." Katsu grinned, taking note of the three sounds of Innocence merging together in Miranda's ticking. "Oh well, easier for me."

Katsu continued to attack with a flurry, not allowing it to use its special attacks.

Or at least, that was the plan. Despite regaining her ability to hear the akuma, it didn't stop them from working together to confuse her when they learned she wasn't actually watching them. This became painfully obvious when she found herself distracted by one akuma, only to find her head trying to explode from the inside out. Damn, why didn't she take out the one with the screaming powers?

_Hurry up, damn it,_ Katsu cursed mentally while she tried everything she could not to scream in unbearable pain. It felt as if a million needles were stabbing her brain simultaneously. Through the pain, she vaguely felt extremely cold. In an attempt to warm herself up, she tried to move, even though all she felt was pain. However, she found herself frozen in place. Shit, the ice akuma. Though the ice wasn't necessarily burning her skin, thanks to her Innocence, it was still so cold. And the pain wouldn't leave her head.

Far away, Katsu could make out two voices, calling out to her. She couldn't fully process what or who had spoken through the pain. Even when it suddenly stopped, it took a moment or two for Katsu to think properly again. Despite the sounds of the akuma, Rhode and Innocence, Katsu heard a loud crack, and Lenalee's voice. "Katsu! Are you okay? Do you need to go visit Miranda?"

Katsu stood, stumbling slightly, holding her throbbing head. "I'm fine," She snapped, irritated with the pain in her head. "Cold, with a slight headache but fine. Did you defeat it?"

"Yes, Allen got it. He's keeping the last one busy while I checked on you."

"Great, let's get that one and get the hell out of here."

Rhode's laugh split through the air, "You Exorcist cease to amaze me. You, akuma, stop and come over here." The akuma followed Rhode's orders as its sound drew closer to Rhode's. "However, this game has grown boring. But I know just the thing to liven things up a little." There was a moment of tense silence before Rhode spoke again. "Akuma, self-destruct. Umbrella start a countdown from ten."

"W-What? Rhode-sama, I just leveled up this much! You can't get rid of me!" Rhode ignored the akuma, not saying anything.

"What are you up to Rhode?" Allen demanded.

"Ten~lero."

"Do you know why I've decided that you're the best to play with, Allen?" Rhode taunted.

"Nine~lero."

"It's because I've heard about you from the Earl."

"Eight~lero."

"That you fight for akuma because you can see their souls with your cursed eye."

"Seven~lero."

"Tell me, what do you think happens to akuma that die but aren't killed by Innocence?"

"Six~lero, five~lero."

"What are you talking about Rhode?" Allen demanded.

"Four~lero."

"Let's say they self-destruct, they'll simply turn into Dark Matter." Rhode giggled. "So you won't be able to save it then, right?"

"Three~lero."

"Don't do it Rhode!" Allen yelled.

Katsu heard the pounding of Allen's feet as he ran as fast as possible, the sound of his Innocence merging with the akuma's cries.

"Two~lero."

He was going to get himself killed at this rate!

"Allen stop!" Katsu yelled out angrily voice echoed by Lenalee's, as she ran in Allen's general direction.

"One~lero."

In a desperate attempt to stop him, Katsu jumped with all her might flying through the air in hope that she'd collide with Allen. Thankfully, a human like body hit her chest and her arms closed around it instantly. She turned her body, trying to cover the one in her arms with her body as much as possible, so the explosion would ricochet off her Innocence.

The loud bang almost burst Katsu's ear drums as it echoed in the silence. Though it didn't hurt her ears as much as the sound of the akuma dying. She would have preferred it if it was a horrible, soul shattering, blood curdling scream of the akuma becoming Dark Matter that was bouncing around in her head. Instead it was a simple, heart breaking sob of someone having just lost everything that mattered to them; that was worse.

Allen's voice yelled out in Katsu's ear, his own despair matching hers. She simply curled his body in hers further, as different akuma parts continued to hit her impenetrable skin. Their bodies flew backwards at the force of the explosion and Katsu once again turned her body so she got most of the brunt force of landing on the ground, added with Allen's weight.

Katsu groaned, her arms falling limply to the ground as they skidded back. Through the pain, she vaguely noticed traces of tears falling down her cheeks.

Allen recovered quickly, rolling off Katsu, sitting up. As he did, Katsu's vision quickly returned to her and for the first time, she saw her surroundings and Rhode looked much like the child she sounded and acted like. But it was their surroundings that interested and worried Katsu. Where they hell were they? Why did it look like an inside out present?

"Allen, Katsu! Are you okay?" Lenalee exclaimed, running over to the twins. She skidded to a stop, gasping. "Your eyes! They're bleeding!"

Allen ignored Lenalee, standing and glaring at Katsu. "Why did you stop me?"

Katsu glared back while trying to rub her now itchy eyes. She tried to ignore the red she saw on her fingers when she pulled them away. "Are you truly stupid enough not to see it was suicide? I can't let my brother kill himself, no matter how much of a literal pain in the neck he is!" Allen jerked back as if he had been slapped, but Katsu wasn't finished. "And don't be all selfish thinking you were they only one effected by the akuma. I heard it all. But you can't go risking your life for one akuma, when you can use the rest of your life to save many more!" Silence engulfed the group.

Rhode broke it, laughing like a maniac. "Running head first into an explosion! You really are entertaining Allen." Rhodes face grew mocking. "Let's do it again some time." She grinned as she jumped down from the umbrella. Walking away from them, a large heart shaped, checkered door protruded from the ground, growing into a full-fledged door.

Allen glared at Rhode's retreating form, body trembling in anger and despair. Katsu could tell he wanted nothing more than to go over there and tear Rhode to pieces, if the boiling anger bubbling in her own chest was anything to go by. Katsu caught Allen's arm, "She's not worth your time. None of the Noah are."

Allen's attention quickly switched over to Katsu. His eyes looked uncertain, flitting back and forth over her face, like he wanted to ask her a question, but thought against it. His emotions right now were hard enough to deal with.

Rhode turned her head towards the Exorcists before completely disappearing behind the door. "Let's play again Allen, but next time, it'll be under the Millennium Count's scenario. Oh, and Katsu, I'll tell my brothers you're in town."

Katsu tensed, her hand unconsciously tightening around Allen's arm. He didn't seem to mind though, lost within his own conflicting emotions.

With a final giggle, the heart shaped doors closed, leaving the three Exorcists in a tense silence.

"So how the hell are we getting out of he-!" She was cut off when the ground beneath her feet was suddenly _not there_. With a surprised yelp, Katsu's arm flailed, her other grasping Allen more securely, hoping his footing was more stable than hers. It wasn't. The two of them went tumbling down a never ending tunnel of white, while Lenalee's concerned voices called after them. Soon, her calls turned into exclaims of fear. Katsu thought she heard a similar sound from Miranda.

Her vision and consciousness momentarily blacked out. When she regained control over her mind, she slowly opened her eyes to see she was in Miranda's apartment with her hand firmly wrapped around Allen's arm.

Allen groaned, a hand going to his head, "Katsu, can you let go of me now?"

Wordlessly, she released her grip as she examined Miranda's apartment. "Where the hell were we? 'Cause I seriously doubt that all this happened in our heads..." Katsu paused. "Maybe it did happen in our heads..."

"I think it was another one of Rhode's powers," Allen said, examining the wall in front of them, with a message that clearly came from Rhode taunting them. Though, it was pretty much nil since they managed to successfully keep the Innocence from Rhode. Regardless, it was irking. Any reminder of that Noah was irking.

"Allen? Katsu? You need to come over here. Miranda isn't looking too well." Lenalee called from around the corner of Miranda's apartment.

Katsu stood hurriedly, rushing over towards Lenalee's voice. Miranda couldn't be hurt. She owed her so much...

What Katsu saw made her gasp. Behind Miranda was her large clock, but unlike before, the hands weren't steadily turning back. Now they were moving back and forth, as if they couldn't make up their mind on which way to move. Miranda sat in front of it, trembling and sweating, in over exertion. Katsu rushed to sit before Miranda, holding her hands comfortingly, like Lenalee was hugging Miranda.

"Miranda, you need to deactivate your Innocence. Your body can't take this much strain with it yet." Katsu said, softly.

Miranda shook her head, and the clocks decorating the room around them began to make their way back into the clock. With a grunt and a large spasm on Miranda's part the clocks stopped their movements. "I-I can't stop. I-if I do, you'll all receive your injuries. And you'll regain everything Katsu. I can't do that to you. Not after all your thanks."

A sad smile graced Katsu's features. "Miranda," She whispered, "I thank you, from the bottom of my heart and I will from this day forward. You allowed me to know what it feels like to not remember, to not know, but I can't let you suffer something that is mine to deal with. I've dealt with it up until now and I can continue to deal with from now on."

"Katsu's right, Miranda," Lenalee added, rubbing Miranda's back soothingly.

"Besides, we'll heal. Thanks to you we remain alive. Because of that, we can heal." Allen added from his position standing behind Katsu.

Katsu's smile didn't falter, "That's right. Let it go..."

Minutes later, the whole town was awoken to the sounds of Miranda running through the streets in hysterics searching for the finder outside of town, to get aid for the three unconscious and seriously injured Exorcists lying in her home.

"Lavi, go guard the door while I treat Allen's anti-akuma weapon."

Allen slowly came to, his eye fluttering open to the not so pleasant sight of Komui standing beside him with one of his large drills. Any and all sense of peace one received while slowly returning from the realms of unconsciousness was washed away as Allen tensed, ready to jump out of bed at a moment's notice. "Eh?! Komui?" Allen frantically looked around him, expecting to be in the Order's hospital. Instead, his surroundings were unfamiliar. "Where am I?"

"You're in a hospital that supports the Black Order," Komui explained, as he set his drill down on a nearby table, not to startle the Exorcist further. He calmly dragged over a wooden chair and sat beside Allen's bed. "We got word from the finder at the location with you that you returned the town to normal. Good job."

Allen blinked, trying to understand what Komui was talking about. The town with Miranda. "How is Miranda?"

"Ms. Miranda left this morning, you just missed her."

"Come to think of it, why are you here, Komui? Shouldn't you be back at the Order?"

"To fix you up of course!" Komui replied happily. He dropped the act quickly at a raise of Allen's eyebrow. "Actually, you and Katsu won't be going back to the Order just yet. I need the two of you to go to Rome. About a week ago, I sent Kanda over there to collect the Innocence that had been reported there and we haven't been in touch with him since. Since there are many akuma in the area, only an Exorcist can enter. I'll send the two of you once Katsu wakes up. Though Lenalee might end up going in her place, if she wakes up first."

"Lenalee and Katsu aren't awake yet?" Allen exclaimed. He was instantly anxious. Were they okay? He knew that Lenalee had suffered some sort of damage to her nerves, but he wasn't sure how serious it was. And Katsu hadn't been in tip top condition either. He was pretty sure she was still recovering from his wounds as well as her own if his un-sore muscles and general wellbeing was anything to go by. He regarded his lack of injuries with dejectedness. And here he thought that for once, he might've been able to suffer through his injuries by himself.

"Don't worry, the old panda is taking care of Lenalee as we speak, she'll be fine."

Not suspecting another voice to respond, Allen's head jerked in the direction of said voice to see another boy, a couple years older than himself leaning against the door frame. His bright red hair was the first thing that caught Allen's eye, followed by an eye patch covering his right eye. Other than the green and black bandanna around his head and the orange scarf around his neck, he was wearing his own version of the Black Order uniform.

"I'm Lavi by the way. Nice to meet you." Lavi smiled at the startled white haired boy.

"Nice to meet you too," Allen muttered, trailing off at the end. "You said that Lenalee was going to be fine, but what about Katsu?" Allen couldn't ignore the guilt that was gnawing away at his side. Lavi hadn't mentioned Katsu for a reason, and Allen couldn't help but feel like it wasn't because she was in better condition than Lenalee.

Lavi's smile only wavered slightly. A singular twitch of the corner of his mouth downwards was the only indication that Allen's suspicions were correct. "Her physical injuries have been bandaged and taken care of as much as possible. Nothing can be done for her mental state, however." This time Lavi did frown. "That's why Lenalee might be accompanying you instead. We don't want to push Katsu's limits if she wakes up in time for you to go."

Allen frowned, his guilt expanding from his side to encompass his stomach and chest making it feel tight. He tried to hide his face behind one of his hands. He should have helped her. He could have helped her, at the very least tried to stop Rhode from hurting her. Instead, all he did was sit and watch, horrified as she bled and her mind was broken.

"On the plus side, Miranda left you a letter, before leaving," Lavi said, offering a small envelope in Allen's direction, a small understanding smile on his face.

Allen stared at the letter with his one good eye, contemplating whether he had the time to read it now, when his sister was, once again, in a serious condition because of him. He ended up taking the letter from Lavi, rationalizing that Katsu was unconscious at the moment and therefore there was little he could do to help her other than wait. He wouldn't spend his time beating himself over something that happened in the past. At least not right at this moment anyway. Perhaps once Katsu woke up and started yelling at him.

Reading the letter, Allen couldn't help a smile stretching across his face. Miranda was making her way to the Black Order and even with the intention in which the words were written, Allen could tell that Miranda had found a sort of peace, and understanding with both her life and Innocence. It reminded Allen _why_ he-along with Lenalee and Katsu-went through all the trouble and pain to help Miranda. They had gained another Exorcist from the trouble. Something they needed dearly. It made it that much more worth it. A reminder as to why they fought. For the peace of others.

**Hope you guys enjoyed :) Feel free to review.**


	9. Chapter 9

Allen met Bookman a couple hours later, once the elderly man had finished Lenalee's acupuncture. While the man appeared friendly, Allen couldn't help but get the feeling he was being inspected. He received a similar feeling with Lavi-his one eye felt like it was staring right through Allen-but wasn't to the same unnerving extent. Perhaps it was Bookman's serious, unwavering expression. Or the way that Bookman had greeted him, by calling him the "Destroyer of Time, brother to the Savior" like Hevlaska had on his first day at the Order. Regardless, Allen suppressed the feeling to the best of his abilities and let Bookman inspect his injured left eye.

"It's regenerating on its own. My needles are unnecessary." He replaced the bandage on the hurt eye. "You won't be able to see out of it for the time being, but at this rate it should be fully healed in 3 or 4 days." Bookman's eyes focused hard on Allen's covered eye. "That is definitely a cursed eye."

Allen nodded, confirming Bookman's statement. "I received it when I turned my father into an akuma."

Bookman simply nodded, as he put away his needles. "You may go visit Lenalee and Katsu now if you wish, though neither are awake."

Allen smiled, standing up. "Thank you."

Upon entering the room that Lenalee and Katsu were being housed in, the first thing Allen saw was _not _either of the two girls. Instead it was piles upon piles of books. It was amazing that the two girls weren't crushed beneath the sea of papers. Treading warily, Allen was practically doing acrobatics around the stacks, not wanting to knock any of them over in fear of the papers and books falling onto Lenalee or Katsu.

Once he was in the center of the room, Allen could make out two beds, a figure on each and one sleeping between the two on a make shift bed of books. Coming closer, Allen recognized Komui.

"Komui..." Allen called, trying to wake the sleeping scientist. He didn't even stir. "Komui," Allen tried again, but louder. Nothing. Allen sighed. "Lenalee's going to get married." Allen had only had to whisper the simple sentence in the scientist's ear to have the man standing up in an instant, drill in hand. Allen jumped back, hands in the air to avoid being hit, with one thought going through his mind, where the hell did Komui get his drill from? Surely he hadn't been sleeping with it.

"Who dares to try and taint my sweet sister's innocence?" Komui cried.

"Uh, Komui?"

"Oh, Allen. It's you, what is it?" Komui hid his drill amongst a couple large stacks of books, having calmed down from his protective brother mode. _I so hope I don't end up like that with Katsu..._

"I came to check up on Lenalee and Katsu." Allen said, moving closer to Komui and the beds once he was sure that Komui wasn't going to drill him to death.

"Right, well, they're both still asleep. Lenalee is in the bed on your left, Katsu the right." Komui motioned to each bed.

Allen checked on Lenalee first. Had he not know she had been injured, he would have thought she had been in a deep slumber. It comforted Allen to know that she didn't appear to be in too much pain, and that she was on her way to recovering. Having that in mind, Allen moved over to Katsu's bed. He immediately kneeled beside her, when he took in her almost completely bandaged state. Unlike Lenalee, Katsu didn't appear to be in a peaceful slumber. Each and every one of her muscles were tense, her hands clenched into fists. Beneath her lids, her eyes were moving back and forth wildly. Allen couldn't even begin to imagine the horrendous dream she must have been going through.

With a slight hesitation, Allen gently took Katsu's clenched fist in both of his hands, hoping to provide some sort of comfort. It was the least he could do, for causing her so much pain.

"She received my wounds as well, didn't she?" Allen asked, his eyes focusing in on her left arm that was bandaged more thoroughly than the rest of her body.

"Yes," Komui replied. "Though, as you know not the injury you received to your eye. The only explanation we can come with is that your curse interfered with the bond that is connecting the two of you, leaving that singular injury your own."

Allen rested his head against Katsu's bed, his hands still holding hers. "I wish she didn't have to put up with it. I don't know what she went through before, with the Noah, but I'm sure it's enough of a pain that she doesn't need to deal with my problems as well."

"We'll search for an answer Allen. But we can't do anything about it now but wait for Katsu to heal."

Allen nodded. Raising his head, but not letting go of her hand, Allen spoke, "This has been bothering me for a while but, why did you come all the way out here when you have so much work to do. It couldn't be because of the three of us." There was a pause. "Is it because of the Noah Clan?"

Komui opened his mouth, about to answer when he was interrupted by a redhead popping up from behind a stack of papers. Allen jumped, not expecting the arrival of someone so suddenly.

"He came to ask me and the old panda about the Noahs." Lavi smiled, either completely unaware of the other two's shock or enjoying it. Either way, he continued. "They're only ever mentioned in rumors as a groundless family that is run by a nameless Earl. That's the reason Komui came to ask us. Bookmen are the only ones that know anything about the unrecorded hisroreee-" Lavi barely got the chance to finish his sentence before Bookman's foot came out of nowhere and hit Lavi right across the face, sending him flying into multiple stacks of papers and books. They all came crashing down on Lavi. In response to the loud sound of the crash, Allen felt the fist in his grasp shake and a small whimper registered within his brain. His attention immediately turned to Katsu.

Not much was different about her muscles being tense, other than the fact that they were trembling with strain. Her face was scrunched up, her jaw clenched, but she was still unconscious.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to talk so much?" Bookman demanded. "Only Bookman can reveal secrets about Bookman."

Glancing back at the ruckus behind him, Allen caught sight of Lavi staring in his direction, even from under the mounds of books. No, he was staring at Katsu. He had noticed a change too. By the time Allen blinked, Lavi was staring ahead again, answering Bookman cheekily. "What's the big deal? I'm going to be taking over for you soon anyway."

"I won't let an idiot like you take over for me any time soon."

"Koala face," Lavi retorted childishly.

Bookman glared down at his apprentice once before standing straight and turning to Allen. "Allen, please rest for now. There isn't much to be done until Katsu and Lenalee awaken. Take it easy." With those final words, both he and Lavi were quickly ushered out of the room, the door locking behind them.

There was a moment of awkward silence as Allen and Lavi stood in the hallway staring at each other.

"Let's go outsi-!"

For the second time in the hour Lavi was interrupted. This time however because of a large crash from the room they were just kicked out of. There were two shouts that followed, one from Komui, the other Bookman. Allen and Lavi turned back to the door trying to open it again, fighting against the lock. Allen was about to slam against it when Komui unlocked it. He faced the other two, stricken.

"Komui, what's wrong?" Allen asked. "Is everyone okay?"

"Katsu's awake." Komui answered, strain evident in his voice.

That's when Allen noticed the open window...no the _broken _window. "What happened?" He demanded.

"Katsu ran off, didn't she?" Lavi supplied, serious. For the first time that Allen could tell.

Komui nodded. "It's as we feared. She's not mentally stable at the moment. For whatever reason, she woke up, took one look around the room and jumped out the window."

"This is a third story window!" Allen exclaimed. Katsu was already seriously injured. Jumping from such a height would most definitely kill her, if not incapacitate her.

"She activated her Innocence as she fell. She received no physical damage. She ran off after landing." Komui explained.

"I'll go after her and bring her back!" Allen declared, turning to leave the building himself.

Lavi held out his arm stopping him. "Not so fast. You haven't seen Katsu in a state like this. You won't be able to coerce her to come back with you that easily. She's in survival mode no doubt. She'll attack anyone that comes too close."

"We have to go help her though. We can't just let her run off like this, she'll hurt herself more."

"That's why I'm coming with you. Hopefully the two of us can talk some sense into her." Despite sounding hopeful, Allen could see the doubt in his eyes. Was Katsu truly too far gone?

Lavi led the way out of the hospital, speeding off in an obvious rush. Allen hated to admit it, but he was almost running in attempt to keep up with Lavi. Damn his short legs.

Once outside, Lavi headed straight to the side of the building in which Katsu's room had been and stared down at the broken glass. Allen stood next to him, inspecting it as well.

"All there is some torn fabric." Lavi bent down to pick it up. "This is where Katsu's Innocence becomes inconvenient. At the very least if she cut her foot, we'd have trail of blood to follow." Lavi sighed standing looking at his surroundings. The left led out into a busier street of town, while to the right, where they came from it was a little less crowded. Lavi frowned. She could have taken either route. The left to lose any followers she knew she would have or the right for a quick getaway and avoid unwanted eyes.

"Allen, go left, I'll go right."

Allen nodded, running off in the direction Lavi instructed. Upon breaking through the alley, he was immediately faced with a large crowd of people, forcing him to slow down. He took the moment, to inspect the crowd, looking for any sight of where Katsu could have gone.

It was ultimately futile. There were too many people to see around.

_Ah hah!_ Allen thought_, the people_. Surely some of them would have had to notice Katsu.

Casually turning to the right, as to not attract anymore unwanted attention than he already had, Allen walked up to the closest two people, who were currently in a conversation.

"Ah, excuse me." The two women turned in his direction. Allen bowed slightly. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm looking for my sister and I don't know where she went. Have you seen her? She has hair like mine and is dressed in black."

"I don't think we saw a girl? Did we Agatha?" The one woman replied, turning to the other.

"No, no girl. Though we did see a white haired boy that fits the description." Agatha replied. "Couldn't really miss him. Running like a bat out of Hell with eyes to match. Kept bumping into other people he did."

Two thoughts immediately swam into Allen's head. Firstly, others perceived Katsu to be a boy? To Allen she looked very much like a girl. Personally he thought her face shape gave away her gender. But then again, there were still some people that mistaken him for a girl due his lack of going through puberty. Second was how Agatha mentioned Katsu's eyes. "Eyes like hell, ma'am?"

"Yes, yes. The iris were blood red they were. Any normal person would think he were possessed by a demon they would." Agatha confirmed. Was Katsu blind again? He couldn't really think of another reason why her eyes would change colour, but his own eye wasn't activated and he was sure hers activated with his.

"Perhaps you could point me in the direction he ran?"

"That way," The first woman said, pointing behind her. "Out of town. God help his soul."

"Thank you," Allen bowed again before leaving the women and starting off in the direction of the town's gate and forest.

Once the crowd thinned out closer to the gate, Allen broke into a run. Who knew how much of a head start Katsu had, and where she would run off to. Allen couldn't even begin to guess what was going through her mind right now other than to simply get away. To his luck though, as he got further out of town, the ground also grew damp and muddy. The perfect consistency to leave footsteps. Despite there being many of them from all the travelers and the townsfolk who left and entered the town, there was a single pair of footsteps that branched off from the normal path, to the left. Taking his chances, Allen followed them deep into the forest.

As he traveled further, he kept an ear and eye out for any sign of Katsu, or a threat if he should encounter one.

Slowly, the ground underfoot grew dense with grass and bushes, hindering Allen's ability to follow the footsteps. He allowed himself a single moment of panic, looking around wildly, hoping to catch sight of Katsu. He didn't see her, so much as he heard her. Coming from the general direction in front of him, Allen could make out the soft sounds of sobbing.

He approached the sound silently, taking his time, not wanting to startle the person he hoped was Katsu. As he broke through the cover of trees, he entered a small meadow, no bigger than three lengths of him, head to foot if he were lying down. In the center sat a crouched black and white figure, frame shaking with the force of her sobs.

Taking another hesitant step forward, Allen winced when he carelessly stepped on a twig, snapping it. Katsu's back tensed, and her sobs stopped. The silence enveloped them in a way that made the situation appear more threatening than it would have been had Katsu immediately started yelling and screaming.

"You won't take me back. I won't let you. No more games."

Allen winced at Katsu's scratchy, harsh tone. He had been used to getting the cold shoulder from the girl, but never this. Never the broken, scratchy, hopelessness that painted her tone. It actually hurt him to think that such a strong Exorcist was feeling so helpless.

"I-" Allen began.

"Where's the other?" Katsu snorted a laugh filled with mirth. "What am I saying? You're never without the other." Katsu sat for a moment longer before she stood, fists clenched. "I won't let you take me back. You'll have to kill me first. Not that you won't find that fun anyway."

"Katsu, I'm not-"

Katsu spun around, red eyes glaring. "Don't try to trick me with his voice! You won't trick me into coming with you peacefully!"

_She really can't see me right now,_ Allen thought_. But why would she think I was trying to trick her?_

Allen tried again. "Katsu I'm not tricking you to believe any-"

"_Shut up_!" Katsu yelled, as she jumped to attack. Her arms blurred as they lashed out at him, causing Allen to barely be able to dodge them. What made it worse was the attacks weren't normal punches. They were precise, practiced movements of someone who trained for many years. They were complicated sequences in a style he'd seen preformed once before, back when he was in the circus with Mana. The circus had a martial artist then, a master in fact. How was it that Katsu had such experienced moves with such deadly grace when she _couldn't even see him_?

Allen tried to at least adjust himself to Katsu's pace to hold her off long enough to try and talk some sense into her.

"Katsu, listen. I'm not whoever you think I am. It's Allen. You need to come back with me so Komui can help you," Allen tried, in the most calming voice he could muster without sounding too condescending.

Katsu bared her teeth at him. "Don't lie to me _Jasdero_. I know what you're doing and it won't work. I'll kill you if I have to, you bastard. Maybe I'll cut all your hair off first." Katsu's leg hit home, knocking Allen's legs from beneath him, sending him to the floor. Allen gasped as the landing knocked all the breath out of him.

Katsu was on him in an instant, sitting on his stomach fist raised. Allen was about to push her off (she was lighter than him) but her fist struck his-injured-face almost on his eye. Katsu grunted as she pulled her arm away, ready to hit again. Allen desperately grabbed for her wrists to stop another attack. By the colour of the bruise that was slowly painting her cheek, Allen didn't want her to continue to indirectly hurt herself.

"Katsu, listen to me. I am not Jasdero. I am Allen. I want to help you."

Katsu snarled down at him. "_Lies_." She jerked her arm free of Allen's grasp, raising it to strike again.

"Katsu, stop!"

Katsu froze and Allen turned in the direction of the new voice to see Lavi's bright red hair approach them, running. Katsu's head soon snapped around like Allen's, though her blood coloured eyes were still glaring daggers.

"Devit," She hissed, climbing off Allen to stalk in Lavi's direction, clearly finding Lavi to be the bigger threat.

Lavi didn't try to correct her, to calm her down. Instead, he ducked when her arm swung out at him. He continued to dodge her attacks with a speed and accuracy that made Allen slightly jealous. How could he keep up with her so easily?

Lavi let out a small laugh after a while of nonstop attacks. Not once during that time had Lavi attacked back. "Just like old times. Ne, Katsu?"

"Shut up, you Noah scum." Finally, a fist hit Lavi in the gut. He grunted but otherwise recovered quickly. Now he countered with his own attacks, though it could be seen that Lavi wasn't fighting with the intention to harm. Each strike with his hands was with an open palm and he tried to grab onto one of her limbs. Each strike of his leg was an attempt to knock her to the ground. Eventually, Lavi sighed, clenching his hand into a fist, lashing out over one of Katsu's attacks. He twisted his hand slightly allowing his knuckles to hit her neck.

The strike was so precise that Katsu's counter attack was merely millimeters away from its target. But it didn't get its chance to connect. Before it could, Katsu sank to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Allen watched, slightly mesmerised from his spot on the ground. He had contemplated on helping on multiple occasions but figured he'd only end up getting in the way. He was right.

"What did you do to her?" Allen asked, his voice coming out more demanding and protective than he intended.

Lavi's lip twitched slightly, noticing this. "Don't worry, I merely hit a pressure point to knock her out. We wouldn't be able to get her back otherwise without either one of us getting hurt further." He bent down by Katsu's body, picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder.

Allen stood as well, dusting himself off. "You look like you've done that before."

Lavi laughed once without humor, starting back the way they came. "Yeah, you might not believe it, but Katsu hated me when she first arrived at the Order. It was just a couple months ago that she started being civil towards me. She's made better progress than Yuu-chan."

"Yuu-chan?" Allen asked, following.

Lavi looked over at Allen, humor in his eye. "Didn't you know? That's Kanda's first name. You should try calling him that next time. You'll probably get a funny reaction."

_He'll probably try to kill me,_ Allen supplied instead. Out loud, he spoke, "Why did she hate you?"

Lavi's smile faltered. "Said I reminded her of someone she hates."

"The Devit guy she mentioned?"

Lavi nodded, "Most likely. She never told me who it was exactly. Said that he was always cheerful and loved games. Especially the sadistic kind." Lavi sighed. "She was making such progress too. To think, the past year and a half was for nothing..."

Allen frowned, guilt eating away at him again. Had he only tried harder...

"It's not your fault Allen. Katsu's been battling with this longer than she's been in the Order. You can't blame yourself for her relapse."

Allen looked up. "How...?"

"It's written all over your face." Lavi smiled slightly. "Why don't you try focusing the self-hate into Noah hate? We'll learn more about them and beat them within an inch of their life when we defeat the Earl. 'Kay?" Lavi's smile turned encouraging as he shifted Katsu around on his shoulder so she was in a more comfortable position.

It amazed Allen slightly how carefree Lavi was in light of what just happened. How could he remain so joking when Katsu's mental health was questionable? Always had been questionable. Why didn't he know this about her? He was her brother, he should have known so he could have helped her, helped prevent it happening again. All the bad things always seemed to happen to Katsu, and Allen wanted to do his part to take the load off.

In a way though, he could hardly blame her. Their whole connection was completely unfair. He never got hurt yet she received every scratch. He had even fatally injured her on his second day at the Order. Not to mention all the other injuries she received on his behalf because of Master Cross' training. He could understand where all the resentment came from. But he had shown adequate signs of wanting to get to know her better, to show her that he didn't like what was happening to her, right? Apparently, he hadn't.

Allen sighed. Ever since he found out Katsu was his sister, and had come to terms with it-it hadn't been too hard when she looked almost_ exactly_ like him-he knew deep down, he didn't want to lose her. The only family, _real_ family he had. Of course Mana was his father, forever would be, but it wasn't the same as knowing he actually had a blood relative. In the past couple of months though, he had only been let down.

When they arrived back to the hospital, Allen held the door open for Lavi as he carried Katsu back through the building and into her original room. Komui greeted them eagerly, his face still sober. When he caught sight of Katsu, it darkened even more, though he didn't ask questions. "We should find her a room with out a window," Komui suggested instead.

With a nod from Lavi he followed Komui through the halls until they reached a fairly isolated hall with only a few doors. He opened the first one, revealing a room that had seen better days. Other than a small, wire bed with a thin mattress that hardly look comfortable, a singular lantern hanging from a wire was the only thing that decorated the room. Due to the dim lighting, the corners of the room were shadowed and slightly ominous looking and the walls and floors a decaying white.

"Are you sure we should keep her here?" Allen asked, skeptical.

"She can't see at the moment any way," Lavi supplied. "Having a room with as little in it as possible is better. Though I will admit it does look creepy." However, he followed Komui into the room, resting Katsu on the bed at the side.

"Bookman and I shall keep a close eye on her. In the meantime," Komui turned to Allen. "It appears we will wait for Lenalee to wake up and she will accompany you on the mission. I'm sure Kanda can wait another day or two."


	10. Chapter 10

Katsu woke with a jolt. Darkness surrounded her, much like it had before she had been knocked out. Her nerves still sang with adrenaline, her limbs twitching in response to move, to run, to fight, to get the _hell away_. She ignored these impulses for a moment to listen. She'd have little chance to escape if they were in the room with her right now. No, that would only cause her more unnecessary pain. So she waited, and listened. Only a quiet creak in the direction of the ceiling could be heard.

She sighed in relief as she slowly pushed herself up from the bed, cautiously swinging her legs over the side. She had to take a different approach to this escape. Obviously the brash jump out the window only caused them to come running after her. This time, she'd have to be sneaky. And not stop until she was far away. No matter what. Of course, this would be easier if she could see, or even _hear_. At least if she could hear, she could tell if those two abominations were near or not.

Regardless, she would get out of here and take down anything that tried to stop her.

Despite trying to keep her footsteps silent, to her they felt as if they were echoing and resonating against the walls. Katsu desperately hoped that it was only that loud to her, and it wasn't a warning to those twins. Knowing her luck, that would be the specific reason she was in this room.

Ignoring the loudness to the best of her ability while trying to remain as silent as possible, Katsu reached over her bed to the wall that she knew was there, using it as a guide line to walk around the room, searching for a window. Once she moved around the bed, she was able to use both hands to feel both high and low for the distinct chill of glass. However, after making it to the third wall, she had come across no such feeling. The last wall could only have a door and that was a risky move in itself if it wasn't locked. Not only would she be forced to try and remain undetected, she'd have to navigate around a building she was unfamiliar with and without her sight. It was most likely a suicide mission. But, if she could gain freedom...She would try it anyway. Worst case scenario was the door would be locked and she'd have to wait for them to visit her to make her move.

Trailing on to the fourth wall, she felt a bump in the wall and change from a smooth texture to the grainy gritty texture of wood. From there she managed to locate the door knob. With as little noise as possible, she turned the knob. Resistance was met instantly.

She huffed in annoyance though her hands began to shake. Her chance of escaping just decreased greatly. Of course she had another plan of action, she wouldn't allow herself to give up so easily, but had the door only been unlocked, it wouldn't have to be as risky.

Focusing on finding her way back her bed so she could rest, and not strain her muscles was all she could do at the moment, to keep from losing her mind. Once seated, she was enveloped in silence again, with no purpose. It was moments like these that made Katsu question whether she hated the games the twins played with her, or the absolute nothingness where her mind was left to wander, and dwell on what had already happened, what was to happen. Even though she tried to occupy herself with other thoughts, such as question what she had done wrong to get captured again, where the others were, even on what the others were doing at the Order currently, but nothing could keep it away for long. Just when Katsu thought she had control, _they_ would seep back in, with their games, and pain and torture. Of course, they never called it torture, she bet they didn't even consider it so. They were simply Noah playing with an Exorcist, like Rhode had with Allen. But they had no boundaries. They never stopped unless she passed out. Even then, she bet they kept going sometimes.

Katsu shivered, fingers locking into her hair, pulling, hoping the dull pain would pull her out of those horrible memories.

_Laughter, bindings, pain. Oh, all sorts of pain. Throbbing pain from broken limbs. Stinging pain from lacerations. Burns and bruises from their experiments. How she detested the Noah's skills. Especially how limitless Jasdevi's was._

_"We've found you boring like this, Exorcist. There are only so many games we can play before they grow old." Devit said, grinning down at her. "That's why my brother and I have an idea."_

_Shudders trembled through Katsu's limbs, eyes wide with unshed tears. However she remained silent in fear that she'd only cry out in pain if she opened her mouth. She couldn't stand giving them anymore satisfaction._

_"Hai-Hai. New game!" Jasdero sang, peering down at her over his brother's shoulder._

_"You're no fun when you lie there unresponsive, so we came up with a wondrous idea. We want to fight you. We don't know why we didn't think of it earlier."_

I can barely stand to sit here without screaming in pain. Fighting you would be suicide._ But Katsu couldn't voice these thoughts. Screams were tickling the back of her throat as Devit grinned down at her, undoing her bindings._

_This should be a happy moment, she could try and escape, but she knew her body could barely stand to support itself, let alone carry her away from the twin's presence fast enough to be safe. The bastards probably knew this._

_"Get up, Exorcist," Devit demanded, pushing her across the table on which she lay. She fell like a rag doll, broken bones jostled, older lacerations reopening. She couldn't hold back the short scream of pain that escaped her lips. Jasdero giggled._

_"Stand up, you won't be any fun unless you try." Devit said, pointing his gold gun in her direction, Jasdero following suit without a moment's hesitation. _

_Katsu whimpered in her form of retaliation, but tried to move herself anyway. Like children, they had temper tantrums if there whims were not met, and they weren't afraid of resorting to violence to achieve their goals. _

_She focused on using her unbroken left arm to try and push herself into a sitting position, right arm cradled against her chest. While trying to move her torso, she kept her legs as still as possible. Her left knee cap burned whenever she moved it or bent her leg._

_"Too slow!" Jasdero complained, jumping in place, swinging his gun wildly._

_"Can't...any faster," Katsu gasped through clenched teeth, her chest rising and falling heavily with the added strain._

_"Perhaps we should help you along then," Devit suggested, his and Jasedero's gun leveling with her face._

_Katsu's mouth opened, but she never got to say anything before a bang resounded through the room, and a puff of smoke blocked her vision. Despite seeing gray, strings launched through the air, wrapping securely around her wrists and ankles, none too gently. A cry wormed its way past her lips as the binds tightened around her weak joints. As the smoke cleared, the lose string became taut, forcing her arms up, followed by the rest of her body until she was in a standing position. Every inch of her body screamed in protest._

_The twins laughed. "You know," Devit said, "I always wanted a puppet..."_

_Katsu shook her head, wishing they had just left her on the table._

The sound of a key turning in a lock was Katsu's temporary angel sent from heaven, relieving her of the pain. Her heart raced however when she remembered the meaning to the unlocking door. This was her chance. She couldn't let it go to waste again.

Standing, she ran towards the door so she was in front of it by the time it opened. As soon as she heard the hinges squeak as they reached their limit, her hand snapped forward, aiming to hit _something_. Something she did hit, but it wasn't a blow. An expert block knocked her arm to the side, grabbing it and twisting it around her back. Damn, if she could only _see_.

"There's no need to struggle."

Katsu snarled. There was every reason to struggle. There was no way in hell she was going to let those bastard twins have their fun without giving it her all to not let them get away with it. She winced as the grip tightened, twisting her arm further behind her back.

"Katsu, please. Listen to me."

Devit was stooping so low as to beg to her? What sick game had he come up with this time?

Katsu's only answer was her leg shooting out and connecting with a shin. The surprise had the desired effect. As her captor grunted, and his grip slackened, allowing her to twist out of it. She wasn't quick enough though. Devit recovered, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight to his body. The most she could do was wriggle side to side.

"Katsu please listen to me. It's Lavi. I'm not here to hurt you. I want to help..."

She knew he was still talking, but it was all lies. Lies to get her to calm down so he could strap her to the bed and break her bones, cut her...anything that caused pain. _She would not let him_. How many times did she have to say it?

Just as she was going to lash out again, something odd and completely unexpected happened. Not in a good way.

A mouth descended onto hers, covering it in a soft gentle non-demanding way. All her nerve endings fried for a moment, as her brain tried to process what was happening and _why_.

Why was Devit kissing her, the pervert?

Katsu's fist freed itself from the strong arms holding her to the body and she socked Devit in the face, the force snapping his head to the side, making his lips leave hers.

"You bastard. Here I thought you had standards."

"La~vi, how's it going?"

Jasdero...why was he just entering? Was he letting his brother "go first"? Had they gotten bored of their other games that they were going to force _that_ upon her too? The one thing Katsu prided herself on not tainting was going to be taken away by these sadists too.

"How do you think, Komui? Nothing's getting through to her."

Damn right. She wasn't falling for any more of their tricks. She wanted out of here.

"Perhaps we should try to take her back to the Order and I can see if I can contact General Tiedoll. He helped her through this last time, he should be able to do it again. If he isn't too busy that is."

She wasn't at their home base then? Yes, all she needed to do was to get out of there and get away. It's so much easier to run away in a town, instead of an extremely isolated house. And what's this about Tiedoll? Were they ordered to go after him next? She wouldn't let them. That man did not have to deal with their shenanigans.

"I'm not going anywhere," Katsu growled, struggling against Devit's hold again.

"If only Allen's eye would heal so she could see that we aren't a threat to her."

"I doubt that would help Komui. She's really far gone."

Wait...Allen? How did they know Allen? Did Rhode tell them? Were they trying to use him to get her to comply with their wishes? It wouldn't happen. She'd protect Allen from them too if she'd have to. Even if he almost killed her with pain often. She'd protect the world from these devils and others like them. It was one of the reasons she fought as an Exorcist.

"If only she talked to us before. We could have helped. It doesn't help that we know very little on the Noah Clan too. Katsu's knowledge could be helpful."

_Stop talking like I'm not there!_ Katsu demanded in her head. _If you're going to have your fun, get on with it already and stop this stupid charade. I know you're lying, you know you're lying and you know I know you're lying, so give it up already!_

There was a sigh. "We should restrain her, so she doesn't try to hurt herself."

Katsu struggled again, limbs trying to hit something, war cries escaping her lips. She would not let them strap her to the bed. _She _wasn't going to hurt herself. That's what they were going to do if she let them restrain her.

Devit grunted and struggled to strengthen his hold her. "Don't think she's agreeing with that idea, Komui."

"There isn't much to do until she regains her sight at least." Jasdero said.

"No, wait, I have an idea," Devit said to Jasdero. Katsu shivered in disgust as she felt someone's-most likely Devit's-breath tickle her ear. "Katsu, Allen's on his way. If you can calm down, we can bring you back to the Order so you can see him when he returns from his mission."

"Lavi..?" Jasdero asked.

Katsu felt Devit lean away from her, barely making out what he said to Jasdero. "Did you not notice her pause when we mentioned Allen?"

Anger pooled through her body. "What did you do to Allen?"

Devit swore under his breath. "Nothing!" He sighed, "It seems that the only way we can get her to trust us is with time again."

Katsu felt herself being forcibly shuffled away from the door and back in the direction of her bed. She yelled, struggled, kicked, anything to free herself. Despite the grunts she received, there was no slack. Damn, she _had_ to get free now. They potentially had Allen. Despite being an annoying bastard whose injuries she had to deal with, he was her brother. She wasn't going to let her brother be thrown to these wolves.

She was thrown onto the bed, Devit's weight close behind, not letting her have a chance to get up again. Once she felt the straps wrap around her wrists, all her strength left her body. The bindings...were impossible to fight. They were always some stronger than normal material that Jasdevi came up with, not allowing her to break through them. A quite sob passed by her lips, as her wrists were secured to the bed. There was no way out for her now.

Much to her surprise, however, the duo left silently, not wanting to play their games.

She quickly lost track of time. On occasion-about six times in total- they brought food to her. They fed it to her carefully, as if they cared. This only worked to confuse her. Why would they show her such consideration? Normally they'd force it down her throat quickly without a care and often enough to simply keep her alive. They must've had something terrible planned.

Katsu shivered. That on top of the silence. It drove her insane. She couldn't move her muscles much to get rid of the jitters, couldn't see anything in the room to focus her attention on-not that the room had much to look at, she presumed-not even the twin's games to keep her focused on the pain.

By the time any sort of relief came, she was twitchy and expecting the worst at every turn.

Her relief came first as she gradually regained her sight. It started first to grow from pitch black, to a dim grey, then slowly colours seeped in. After that, the colours began to take shape and form recognizable objects that were blurry. The blurriness faded away and her sight grew more precise. Her eyes widened when she took in the sight of the walls that were once white but decreased in brightness after many years. A single light bulb was the only fixture in the room and stood out against the absolute nothingness that was the rest of the room. Even the door in front of her was the same off white. Katsu groaned. She was sure the tone of the room was worse than not seeing anything at all.

This also proved true after many more hours. One thing that kept her slightly interested though, was the lack of the twins. She was sure that they wouldn't be able to hold themselves back knowing they had an Exorcist strapped in a room defenceless. And she hadn't seen them at all since regaining her sight.

Katsu groaned, hitting her head off the mattress for the hundredth time. Where were they? What were they planning? Her muscles were cramping. She needed to move. Now. God, what if their game was to let her suffer the torture of her own mind? They'd done it before. Granted, not for this long, and with less breaks in between. That had to be it.

Every nerve ending froze in Katsu's body as she heard the distinct sound of the door unlocking. She wasn't ready for this. She couldn't see their faces again, after all this time. She swore the next time she saw them, she was going to defeat them. She wasn't in a position to do that. Why couldn't she have stayed blind? At least this way she could have kept her promise.

Katsu closed her eyes. She wouldn't let herself see them.

Footsteps were the only thing that sounded throughout the room before a pair of breaths, one uneven, the other slowly and natural. The footsteps paused by the side of her bed. This was it. They were going to start their games now, she was sure of it.

"Katsu...?" The voice called out.

Katsu squeezed her eyes shut tighter. She didn't want to see him, she didn't, she didn't, she didn't.

"I have more food for you. I know you're awake." She smelt something meaty wafted under her nose and her stomach growled. However, she barred her teeth. "Open up." A utensil-spoon-was placed against her closed lips. Katsu shook her head roughly. "C'mon, you need to eat. I swear I haven't poisoned it." The spoon pressed against her lips more forcefully, yet still with a gentle touch.

Reluctantly, Katsu opened her mouth letting the broth drizzle into her mouth followed by a piece of meat. She chewed slowly, needing more prodding to open her mouth again.

Once he was done feeding her silence echoed around them. Katsu refusing to say anything, Devit refusing to leave.

"Can I see your eyes, Katsu? I need to see if they've healed."

Katsu snarled. Why the hell should he care if he saw her eyes?

"I know you can see again Katsu. Komui said Allen's eye had healed earlier today. I need you to open your eyes, so you know I'm not lying to you."

Katsu laid still for a moment. She couldn't believe him. He could be saying anything to get her to open her eyes. He knew it would only make everything worse for her.

There was a second sigh, "I didn't want to do this...Katsu. Open your eyes, or you won't get to see Allen again." The voice was hard, unwavering in its serious tone.

Katsu's fists clenched but cracked her eyes open slightly only so she could see the off white walls in front of her.

"Open them fully Katsu."

Clenching her jaw and bracing herself for everything horrible, she flung her eyes open. At first she was blinded by the sheer light in the room, her eyes having connected with the light bulb. After adjusting her gaze slightly, the next thing she saw was red. Red hair. She only knew one person with red hair pulled up like that. Looking further, she saw the eye patch and bright emerald eye followed by a body dressed in an Exorcist jacket.

Tension she hadn't even realized she had left her as Lavi's presence comforted her. "Lavi..." He managed to get here to save her, Allen too.

A wide grin broke across his face. "It's about time you recognized me."

"How did you get in here? D-Don't the Noahs have akuma stationed all around here?"

Lavi shook his head muttering, "Still not a hundred percent then." Louder he said, "No, Katsu. You're at a hospital in a town next to the rewinding town. You weren't captured by the Noah. Your mission with Allen and Lenalee was a success, remember?"

Katsu frowned, her eyebrows knitting together. The twins hadn't got her...? "I-I..."

Lavi smiled slightly in understanding. "I don't know everything that happened during the mission, but Allen told us Rhode had been torturing you, bringing back memories of you time with the other two Noah. Miranda had used her Innocence to heal you to let you help Allen. After Miranda's Innocence stopped, Allen believed that the memories attacked you in your weakened state."

Katsu shook her head. What he was saying about Rhode was true, but something felt off about the last bit. She just couldn't remember _what_. "C-Can you untie me? My arms are sore."

Lavi nodded, releasing her bindings. Once free from the bed, Katsu sat up slowly, showing Lavi that she had no intention to attack him again. God, she felt horrible for attacking him...again. She stood slowly once Lavi moved out of the way, relishing in her joints cracking as she did so. Once standing, she slowly made her way around the perimeter of the room, like she had when she first woke up in this room, except this time, her eyes caught every single detail in the walls. She could feel Lavi's gaze on her as she went.

Lavi waited until Katsu was on her third pass of the room before speaking in a matter of fact tone that Katsu came to recognize with the Bookman part of him. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?" Katsu asked while internally wincing at the direction of the conversation. It was times like these that she greatly disliked Bookman's ability to record everything.

"Pulling it deeper within yourself." Lavi walked over to her, grabbing her gently and turning her to face him. "It's not good for you, Katsu. This whole matter happened because you wouldn't confide in any of us. We didn't know how to help you."

Katsu turned her head away, unable to look Lavi in his all seeing eye. "It's not something I can talk about easily Lavi. Just like there are things you can't talk about easily. I respect that, I'm asking you to respect mine."

"I didn't nearly fall over the edge of insanity."

"How do you know your secrets won't push you over the edge sometime in the future?" Katsu turned her hard questioning gaze to Lavi. He held her gaze, though it was weak, as if he was thinking back on something. Katsu shook her head, "You know what, forget it. I'm fine, and I need to get out of here. Go on a mission or something."

"Komui's not letting you go on a mission until he's a hundred percent sure you're better. Both physically and mentally." Lavi's hand's released her arms, letting them drop to his side.

"Take me to the Order then. I'm fine. The only way I can get better is if I get back out there." Katsu turned towards the door.

Lavi didn't stop her, instead he followed close behind. "You've been spending too much time with Yuu-chan. You're starting to sound like him. But you can't heal as fast as he can. You need time to heal properly."

"I've had days to heal. Besides, Allen and Lenalee are most likely on missions right now. I should do my part too." Katsu stormed out the door.

"You've only had a couple days. And besides, Lenalee had some nerve damaged that was healed by the old panda, and all Allen's injuries, except for his eye were given to you. You have the most healing to do. Just calm down and take it slow. We'll make our way to the Order." Lavi said.

"I can't Lavi!" Katsu exclaimed, grabbing her hair and pulling as she began to pace back and forth in the hallway. "I need to _do_ something. Fight akuma, travel, _something_. I will go insane if I'm left to sit down and think. I can't think any more. I had however many days to think, thinking the past had become reality again. I can't do that, I won't let myself and I won't let you stop me from doing something to refrain getting lost like that again."

"We'll go back to the Order, 'kay? Let me just let the old man know that you're up again and normal, and we can get on our way."

Pausing in her pacing to glance at Lavi, she reluctantly nodded.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys, hope you like this chapter. I think it's sort of cute XD.**

Katsu, Lavi and Bookman returned to the Order with a warm welcome from Komui and the science division. Komui instantly dragged Katsu away to question her and give her a check up. Katsu used this moment to apologize to Komui from freaking out on him when he tried to help Lavi with calming her down. Komui waved it off quickly, though he made an off handed comment about how she had attacked Allen when he ran off to find her when she had run off.

Katsu paused, thinking, while Komui did a standard physical examination. It had been Allen that she first mistaken for Jasdero? No wonder it hurt when she hit him. She had thought she was simply feeling an injury she had received prior to the 'escape'. Sometimes, the whole fiasco with Allen just gave her a headache. Not only did she have a twin after having such a terrible history with twins, but she also had to have this strange connection with Allen, through their Innocence. It was most definitely_ not_ fun having to deal with double the pain when she couldn't even control it.

Katsu internally sighed. She didn't know what to do about Allen. Though she could begin to understand that she may have been slightly unfair to him, but...she had enough shit to deal with in her life. Having found as cause to some of it just begged her to blow up at it. There was still a large part of her that was resentful, but...he had saved her first over Lenalee in the showdown with Rhode and he came after her with Lavi when she ran off. Perhaps, she at least owed him an apology, or an explanation. She could give him that, and at least they'd be on the same page.

With that thought in mind, Katsu had a plan. But first, she needed a few days to blow off some steam. She wondered if Kanda was in the building. Perhaps if he was, he'd be willing to spar with her.

Komui let her go a while later, telling her to take it easy and he'd let her go on a mission as soon as he felt she was ready. To Katsu though, 'when she was ready' was now, yet like Lavi, Komui declined, saying she needed to heal.

Now she sat in the cafeteria with Lavi, sulking slightly. It had been a day or so since arriving back at the Order. Katsu did get her chance to spar, only not with Kanda. He was still MIA with Allen and Lenalee searching for him. So she was left with Lavi to spar with. Not that it wasn't still a stress relief to hit someone without any guilt of having ill intentions, but Lavi didn't offer the same kind of challenge that Kanda did. Even after fighting each other for a year, and getting the hang of each other's habit's they still managed to throw in wild cards against each other. Lavi was just a little too easy to beat. He could get a good winning move against her on occasion, and was damn good at dodging, but not often enough to appease her thirst for a good fight.

Her reprieve came when the next day when Kanda, Allen and Lenalee returned to the Order with a finder in tow. However it wasn't how she would have expected it. Kanda was injured and bloody, though it didn't look as worse as she guessed it did even just a few hours ago. Sometimes she wished she had Kanda's ability to heal, not that she would have wanted to go through _that_ hell for it. Allen was in rough shape too, though not enough to have caused Katsu any extra noticeable pain over the typical training pains.

In a day or too, Kanda should be in shape enough to spar with her. Though she was interested in testing Allen's skills properly, but she didn't feel like hitting herself both literally and figuratively.

When she caught Allen's eye when he walked past her, she nodded to him, before continuing on her way. Perhaps she would stop avoiding him for a start. Like Lenalee had suggested during their mission.

Katsu was stalking the grounds of the Black Order searching for a certain, typically annoying red head. For once it wasn't because of his typically annoying antics, or to side with Kanda in an attempt to kill him. No, she was finally putting a plan she had kept in the reserves into action. Only, she needed the perspective of a male. Kanda was out of the question, he would only serve to be grumpy at best and while he typically didn't threaten women, he might make an exception for her. Allen was completely out of the question since she was going through with her plan for him. Which left Lavi.

A flash of red caught her vision. "Lavi!" She yelled, running in the direction she spotted the red. He stopped walking away, and turned in Katsu's direction.

"Hey, Katsu!" Lavi waved at the approaching Exorcist.

"I need to go to town today to find something. I want you to help me."

Lavi's eye shined, "Yeah, what for?"

Katsu looked around, making sure she wasn't being heard by a pair of ears identical to hers. When she saw none, she replied, though still in a hushed tone, "I want to find something that says...I'm sorry? I'd like to...try apologizing to Allen."

"Yeah, sure." Lavi leaned back slightly, hands resting behind his head. "Anything to get away from Gramps for a bit. The old panda's making me read all day with sorting books as my only relief."

"Great, we're going to stop for some grub first, and then we'll get started." Katsu stated, rubbing her hands together.

Lavi pouted slightly, in a playful manner before following her down the hall in the direction of the exit. So lost in their teasing, they didn't notice the white haired figure that had caught on to part of the conversation.

Allen watched the two walk off with a suspicious eye. He didn't have much history here with the Exorcists and knew Lavi for an even shorter time, but it had been clear that there was something between Lavi and Katsu. Or at least Lavi had something for Katsu. Something that made the brother in Allen rear its ugly head. Not only did he catch wind of Lavi kissing Katsu while in her unstable state, but he'd have to be blind to be able to miss the way he looked at her. Allen could thank Cross' womanizing habits for something after all.

_No, no, no. It's probably nothing. My imagination is running wild again. I will not become an over protective Komui type brother_, Allen told himself as he started to walk in the opposite direction, headed for the library. Besides, that kiss was probably something to just snap Katsu out of the depths of her mind with such rage for being on the receiving end of the kiss. And Lavi was simply eager to get out of the Order for a bit and away from Bookman. That had to be the answer.

He didn't even have to fully walk into the library to know that Komui was already going crazy. His yelling and the sound of the other scientists trying to calm him down could be heard from a mile away. Allen sighed as he stepped into the room. This was going to be a long day.

"What's going on here?" Allen asked, watching Komui skeptically, biting back the headache he was beginning to form.

"Lenalee's going on a date! I won't let Russell dirty my sweet, innocent Lenalee!" Komui exclaimed struggling against the strong hold the entire science division had on him, trying to reach Allen.

"You don't know it's a date, Chief!" Reever countered, strengthening his hold on Komui.

"I wonder if she went with Katsu and Lavi. They went out to town too," Allen mused. A part of him hoped those two were meeting up with Lenalee then there would be even less of a chance of _them_ going on a date.

"We must follow them!" Komui declared. "To make sure those two trouble makers don't harm our sisters!"

Allen sweat dropped. "I'm sure Lenalee and Katsu are the last two people on Earth that need protecting from _Lavi_ and _Russell_. I'd bet my own life that if push comes to shove, they can protect themselves." _Then why are you so worried about Katsu going out with Lavi then?_ The little voice in the back of Allen's mind whispered. He quickly squashed it.

"But Katsu and Lavi could be on a date right now too!" Komui insisted, knowing he would be able to find an ally in Allen. "He might treat her inappropriately!"

Allen internally struggled with that little voice he just squashed. He could feel it struggle under his metaphorical boot, gasping out words of support whenever it got the chance. On one hand, he doubted Lavi would treat Katsu inappropriately; he had taken care of her when she was still mentally recovering. Not to mention, Katsu could throw a mean punch. But on the other, the brother in Allen wanted to go, to prove to himself that Lavi did have feelings for Katsu so he could beat him up appropriately. "I think you're over reacting, Komui," Allen finally answered.

Komui broke through the grasp of the scientists. "I propose we follow them, just to make sure!" Grabbing Allen he ran out of the Order, the scientists close behind, not trusting their chief not to make a scene.

Allen sighed as he was dragged. This was not going to end well.

Unaware of the potential stalkers on their tail, Katsu continued to drag Lavi around town. They stopped at a quaint little pub for lunch. Katsu managed to control herself and the amount she ordered, not wanting to use the small amount of money she had on food when she was on a mission.

"What is it that you have in mind that you want to get Allen?" Lavi asked resting his head on his hand as he watched her, his green eye twinkling.

"I don't know." Katsu huffed. "I don't do the mushy stuff. Besides, you're a Bookman and a guy, right? You know what guys would like."

Lavi frowned good naturedly. "I'm only being used for my brain, huh?"

Katsu grinned. "Clearly. I'm most likely going to try and kill you before the day's over for being an annoying Usagi anyway, so you might as well make yourself useful in your potentially final moments."

"You know you wouldn't _dream_ of harming this charming face." He leaned back in his chair, arms resting behind his head as if to prove the confidence he had in his statement.

Katsu made a show of looking around. "A charming face? Where? I actually want to see an attractive guy before I die."

Lavi rolled his eyes, "It's a good thing he's been in front of you this whole time, then."

Katsu's gaze returned to him. "You? Nah, I'd say your average. I mean, the colouring of that bandana is ghastly, and your hair looks like you just got out of bed." She paused, not realizing her gaze turned into a stare. "I suppose the eye patch works in your favour. Gives you a rugged look. And your other eye is kind of entrancing...It could force people to get lost in it..." Catching herself, she blushed, swallowing the lump that formed in the back of her throat. "Clearly that's the only feature that pushes you to be at average, otherwise you'd barely be…making the…title average." Her gaze wondered away from Lavi's intense gaze to the front of the room, unable to calm her flaming face. "Well, we should probably get going again. I'm going to go pay." She began to stand, to head to the counter.

Lavi caught her wrist before she was fully standing. "I can pay, it's fine."

Bolts of electricity shot through Katsu's arm and she yanked it back on impulse. "I'm already up. It really doesn't matter whether I pay or not." Her voice snapped near the end, coming off harsher then she intended.

Lavi backed off, raising his hands in defeat. He wanted to pursue the topic further, but he really had no ground to argue on without completely ruining Katsu's mood for the day. His manly pride would have to take a hit this once and be consoled with the thought that they weren't actually on a date, and to everyone else around them, Katsu looked like nothing other than one of Lavi's friends, a guy. They wouldn't stare at him for letting a woman pay.

Even with these thoughts in mind, the one replaying what Katsu had said about him in perfect Bookman clarity wouldn't leave his mind. Katsu thought that his eye patch was attractive? And she found his other eye entrancing? Lavi couldn't help but grin as Katsu made her way back to him.

Katsu cleared her throat, arms crossed across her chest. "Let's get going."

Nodding, grin still in place, Lavi stood, following Katsu out of the pub.

They wandered the streets for a while, Katsu eyeing each store thoroughly before deciding it wasn't even worth looking into. A couple would pass Katsu's initial inspection and she would drag Lavi inside for a meander around. For the whole process, Lavi fought to urge to take Katsu's hand, his mind criticizing him for every time the idea popped into his head. After what happened in the pub, he didn't think she would be much in the mood for any more affection. Besides, he knew the town wouldn't react well to him being affectionate to another person they all perceived to be a boy.

"What about that one?" Lavi suggested, pointing to a random store.

Katsu raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I'm sure Allen would love to receive a hat. I'll just give it to him with the message, 'thanks for dealing with my crap. Here's a hat'."

"You know, _we_ never got gifts for putting up with you." Lavi muttered, faking a look of dejection.

"Fine, I'll buy you a more appropriate looking bandana. How's that?" She reached up towards his head, her fingers just brushing the offending material.

His hands went flying to his head protectively, swatting Katsu's out of the way. "Not my bandana! Anything but my bandana, you fiend!"

Katsu rolled her eyes with a quiet almost inaudible laugh. She withdrew her hands without much further provocation from Lavi. "My point. Besides, you aren't my brother." She looked down at the ground suddenly unsure, "I want to..." She paused, taking a moment to truly think about what she wanted out of this situation. "I want to try to make it work. This...family thing. To prove to my subconscious that not all sibling relationships are as messed up as...theirs, or as crazy as Komui's and Lenalee's." Growing confident once more she punched Lavi playfully in the shoulder. "And isn't simply being in my presence enough of a reward on its own anyway?"

Lavi stared down at Katsu's joking face. It never failed to amaze him how quickly emotions could fly across her face. "I could ask you the same thing about my presence," Lavi teased back, chest tightening in anticipation for the rejection he knew was going to follow.

Katsu rolled her eyes again. "Let's check in here." Without realizing her actions, Katsu grabbed Lavi's hand, directing him towards a small little shop on the corner of the street.

Lavi allowed a small smile to grace his face as his chest lightened ever so slightly as Katsu dragged him. She hadn't out right rejected him.

The store keeper glanced up when he heard Katsu drag Lavi through the front door. The elderly man smiled at his new customers. "How may I be of service to you, young lads?"

Katsu paused, giving herself time to take a good look around the store she entered on whim. As the inventory registered in her mind, she realized that something at this store would be perfect for Allen. "Hi, I'm looking for a pocket watch for my brother," Katsu replied. "Is there anything that resembles a clown, or a juggler?" Allen had said he used to be in the circus before joining the Order, surely he would appreciate the reminder.

The balding man smiled knowingly. "I think I might have something similar in the back, let me go get it."

The two waited in the front of the shop for the shop keeper to return. When he did, he had a small, silver pocket watch dangling from a chain in his hand. When he placed it on the counter before them, Katsu stared down at it. "It's perfect." It was. It had a goofy clown with a pointed hat balancing on a large ball while it was juggling other balls on the lid. Exactly what Allen had been doing on the mission in the rewinding town. "Is there any way to get an inscription?" She asked as an idea popped into her head as she looked up at the store keeper expectantly.

The shop keeper nodded. "I can get it finished by this evening at the earliest. Is there a specific time you want to have it by?" The man asked, providing her with a piece of paper to writer her desired inscription.

"We can pick it up this evening. Thank you." She scribbled the message that popped into her head, handing the paper back to the man. Thanking the man, Katsu once again dragged Lavi out of the store. "You can decide where we go next."

"You sure?" Lavi joked.

Katsu nodded, "If you don't want to, I'm more than willing to drag you into a few other places."

"I don't think I can take much more running around," Lavi complained. "Why don't we simply take a seat at a bench and just enjoy the weather? We have a few hours to waste anyway. I believe the benches by the river are the best."

Katsu's stomach fluttered at the thought. Why did she care about spending time with Lavi by the river? It was hardly a special sight; she had been there a couple times before when she stopped by for a few short visits into town. She should have been attempting to beat the life out of the usually annoying Usagi by now, but instead of being annoyed, she found herself finding Lavi's retorts...endearing? Fun? What the hell was happening? He was always the one that never failed to bring back horrid memories of _that one_.

The memory of Lavi checking on her frequently while she still believed he was Devit, danced its way back into her thoughts. How he fought against her, to help her. How he had been so caring. How he...kissed her. Katsu's cheeks grew warm. She could barely recall that moment, though she remembered quite clearly that it _did_ happen. Could he not have chosen a better time for it? Didn't he know he was going to get hit in response? Hell, he'd get hit again if he tried anything now.

No. She was simply being ridiculous. Lavi was a Bookman. Bookmen had no hearts. He was merely humoring her, to keep up the act as an ally. He was doing nothing more than recording her, so she could be ink on paper.

Regardless, as Lavi directed her over to a simple bench just in front of a small parlor, Katsu couldn't help but notice how her hand felt comfortable in his, as he kept hold of it, even as they were sitting.

Allen watched the duo sit on the bench across from the alley he was currently hiding in with a watchful eye. Not just for all potential signs of Allen's suspicions being true, but mostly for any potential harmful objects they might get caught in during Komui's over protective brother rage. Komui had already successfully blown up a tie shop and the side of a small coffee shop. Luckily the duo Allen had been watching weren't in the same vicinity at the same time.

The two were seated at a bench, minding their own business with an almost constant back and forth chatter and friendly bickering. Just watching the two of them in this moment, Allen couldn't detect any romantic feelings, just companionship. It was almost pleasant to watch. To see two of his friends so relaxed instead of tense, something that came with the job of being an Exorcist.

It was in this tranquility, that Komui interrupted and did something Allen had suspected but didn't think Komui would have the guts to go through with. Clearly his protectiveness over Lenalee made Komui do crazy things. It began with the ground shaking, closely followed by Komui's triumphant laughter.

Allen wasn't the only one who noticed. As soon as the ground trembled, the red head and whitette, froze, shared a look with one another and jumped off the bench. Almost in synchronization, Katsu, Lavi and Allen rushed off in the direction of the crazed laughter.

"Komui!" Katsu yelled the minute said man and the other scientists were in their view. "What the hell are you doing?"

Komui, temporarily distracted from his task glanced over to Katsu, looking like a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. As quickly as this look came, it was gone and determination replaced it. In quick succession, the robot landed before Komui, allowing him to jump on top of the robot.

"Russell! You monster! I won't let you have my dear, sweet Lenalee!" Komui cried, pointing in the direction of the building next to the one Katsu stood by. From the doorway, Lenalee stepped out with Russell behind her, looking rightfully horrified.

"Nii-san, what are you doing?" Lenalee demanded, glaring up at her brother with her hands on her hips. "Do we have to destroy this robot too?"

"This one won't be taken down so easily in the light of such an offender. He shall be destroyed first! Sir Komlin the Third! Go after Russell!" Listening to its creator, the robot gave chase to a man who was smart enough to get a head start.

The robot, whom was too big for the normal streets, began to destroy the buildings on either side of it.

Lavi, Katsu, Allen and Lenalee gave chase to the robot, intent on destroying the offending piece of metal. They weren't able to catch up to it until it had managed to corner Russell against a dead end, causing the poor man to claw against the wall as if he wished the wall would just give way so he could continue his escape.

Lenalee jumped up to where her brother stood on the robot, to talk some sense into the man, while Katsu activated her Innocence to begin to destroy the robot, piece by piece. First, she knocked out the legs, before throwing a shuriken in the direction of the robot's "eye" knocking out any chance to see.

Komui's cries of pain at having lost another robot never came, instead they sounded joyous. "Lenalee bought me a present, Lenalee bought me a present," he sang and the two of them descended from the falling robot. From his spot against the wall, Russell wiped his brow, looking mightily relieved.

Lenalee turned to face her brother, giving him a telling off, as if she were the older sibling and didn't notice that from behind her, Russell was quickly turning into an akuma. Katsu swallowed her disbelief and threw a shuriken at Russell the same time a long silver arm stretched out to slice the akuma in half. The combined efforts destroyed the pesky akuma.

"See! I was right to go after Russell!" Komui proclaimed pointing and jumping in the vicinity the Akuma had just exploded.

"No," Katsu countered, "You're half lucky that an akuma disguised himself as Russell. The real Russell did nothing wrong. I think you should find him and apologize."

Komui sighed, but traveled back through the ruins to search for Russell with the help of the other, now relieved scientists and Lenalee. Lavi stayed back with Katsu, as did Allen.

Lavi elbowed Katsu. "It's about time for you to pick up your order, don't ya think?" Lavi winked inclining his head back in the direction of the pocket watch shop.

Katsu's gaze wondered in the direction of the shop, thinking about her gift for Allen and she couldn't help the small smile stretch across her face. Without a word, Katsu snatched Allen's hand, dragging him across the street to the thankfully, unharmed pocket watch shop.

"Eh? Katsu why are you taking me in here?"

"Why do you think?"

The elderly shop owner glanced up again when the twins entered his shop and he smiled in welcome. "You're just in time, your order is ready. This must be your brother. The two of you almost look identical."

"We're twins, sir." Allen said, smiling back at the man.

"I'll go get your order then." With one last smile at the two siblings, the shop keeper went to the back of his store to get the pocket watch Katsu ordered.

When he returned he had the pocket watch in a simple wooden case and handed it to Katsu. Katsu took it, turning to Allen and paused for a moment to explain. "This is my apology for the way I've acted towards you for the past few months. Though it will take time, this is a peace offering of sorts. I'll try to be nicer if you try not to hurt yourself as often."

Allen grinned happily. He was more than willing to take that deal. A small step forward was better than none at all. "Deal."

With a small, unsure smile, Katsu handed Allen the box.

He took it from her, taking a moment to admire the handiwork of the box before opening the lid. Inside he saw a silver pocket watch with the little juggling clown on the front. A sad and happy smile crossed Allen's face.

"You told me you used to be in a circus so..."

"Thank you," Allen said, earnestly.

"Open the watch, that's not it."

Allen did as he was told, opening the pocket watch carefully. On the right face was the expected ticking clock, but on the normally blank left face, there was a small inscription. _Always Connected, So We'll Never Forget, A, K & M._

Eyes wide, Allen met Katsu's gaze. She had put Mana's initial as well. And the little caption described both his connection with Mana and the connection the two of them currently shared. "Katsu, this is amazing. But I have nothing for you."

Katsu held up her hand. "Trust me, I have enough from you already," Though she laughed at the end, the resentment still lingered in her eyes, Allen noticed. He'd simply have to work harder to wipe it away. That would be his peace offering to Katsu.

With one final thanks to the shop keeper, the two left the building to meet Lavi at the front. Once out of the store, Allen proceeded to give Katsu a hug. "Thank you," he whispered again, giving her a squeeze even as she stood awkwardly in his arms.

Once she was let go, she coughed awkwardly. "You're welcome."

Lavi grinned, watching the twins; it was nice to see Katsu finally accept the family love she needed. Or start to, anyway. After a moment, to be sure that he wasn't going to ruin the moment, he spoke. "Well, if nothing else is going to go wrong today, I say we get Komui to start cleaning up his mess and we return to the Order. I don't know about you, but I'm wiped out."

"Yes, we'd hate to see you over work yourself, Lavi," Katsu rolled her eyes. Together, the trio started off in search of Komui.

**Please review! :) **


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